The UK’s top 100 media companies have a combined revenue of £87bn, according to research by Deloitte.
Press Gazette’s analysis of the Deloitte Media Metrics list found that companies who employ journalists contributed £13.2bn.
Those whose business was described as “news publishing” contributed £5.9bn of the total.
The data is based on reported UK revenue at Companies House, so vastly under-estimates the true size of Facebook and Google which both only report a small fraction of their earnings in the UK.
Google UK is listed 14th overall with revenue of £1.2bn in 2014. Facebook only reported revenue in the UK of £105m, according to the report.
Advertising company WPP is said to be the biggest UK media company with revenue of £12.2bn.
Daily Mail publisher DMGT is the biggest news industry company on the list, in ninth position with revenue of £1.8bn.
The report suggests that TV is the biggest media sector in the UK, with combined revenues among the top 100 companies of £35bn.
The revenue figures quoted are the latest UK figures available as of April 2016.
Deloitte lead partner for media and entertainment Dan Ison said: “It is clear from our research that the industry is moving towards an end-to-end game when it comes to content.
“Not only do media organisations want to engage with the consumer directly by owning the point of transaction, but they also want to own the IP of the content they create.
“There is an obvious financial motive for this: distribution-only companies have an average profit margin of just 1.2 per cent, whereas content creators typically generate average margins of 9 per cent, and are seven times more profitable. The old adage of ‘content is king’ has never been more relevant.”
Overall, Deloitte says revenue for the media top 100 has grown 21 per cent since 2011.
But most companies in the news sector were found have declining revenues over the three years to 2014 (listed in the table).
UK journalism industry companies ranked by turnover (source Deloitte)
| Name of business | Annual revenue (millions) | 3-year growth to 2014 | Industry sector | |
| 1 | Daily Mail and General Trust plc: | 1843 | -1.2 | news publishing |
| 2 | Reuters Ltd | 1517 | -5.8 | information publishing and events |
| 3 | Informa Plc | 1212 | -3.8 | information publishing and events |
| 4 | News Corp UK and Ireland | 1172 | -1.4 | news publishing |
| 5 | UBM plc | 770 | -11.1 | information publishing and events |
| 6 | Trinity Mirror plc | 593 | -5.8 | news publishing |
| 7 | HM Publishers Holdings | 590 | -17.4 | information publishing and events |
| 8 | Thomson Reuters (Professional) | 481 | 22 | information publishing and events |
| 9 | Northern and Shell | 478 | -11.4 | news publishing |
| 10 | Conde Nast International Ltd | 396 | -4.9 | magazine publishing |
| 11 | John Wiley and Sons Ltd | 372 | 36.2 | information publishing and events |
| 12 | The Economist Newspaper | 328 | -3.2 | news publishing |
| 13 | Ascential Holdings Ltd (formerly Emap) | 319 | 7.8 | information publishing and events |
| 14 | Telegraph Media Group Ltd | 318 | -1.3 | news publishing |
| 15 | The National Magazine Company Ltd | 296 | -3 | magazine publishing |
| 16 | The Financial Times Ltd | 288 | -1.9 | news publishing |
| 17 | Time Inc (UK) Ltd | 280 | -5.5 | magazine publishing |
| 18 | Newsquest Media Group Ltd | 279 | n/a | news publishing |
| 19 | Auto Trader Ltd | 251 | 3.2 | information publishing and events |
| 20 | Johnston Pres plc | 245 | -10.4 | news publishing |
| 21 | Guardian Media Group plc | 215 | 1.3 | news publishing |
| 22 | Haymarket Media Group | 184 | -5.5 | magazine publishing |
| 23 | Vancouver Topco Ltd (Immediate Media) | 164 | 37.3 | magazine publishing |
| 24 | TES Global Holdings | 130 | 19.6 | information publishing and events |
| 25 | Argus Media Ltd | 124 | 20 | information publishing and events |
| 26 | Archant | 122 | -3.4 | news publishing |
| 27 | SAGE Publications Ltd | 105 | 6.5 | information publishing and events |
| 28 | Which? Ltd | 96 | 6.9 | magazine publishing |
| 29 | Euromonitor | 88 | 10.9 | information publishing and events |
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