Pearson: Print to digital costs have hit FT Group profits

Pearson has warned that FT Group’s full-year profits for 2012 will be “significantly lower” than 2011.

This is, the company said, due to the sale of FTSE International and “further actions to accelerate the shift from print to digital”.

Overall, it said that FT Group – which includes a 50 per cent stake in The Economist – will report “good revenue growth for the full year” despite “a slow fourth quarter caused by weaker advertising sales”.

Digital and subscription-baser revenues are said to be continuing to “grow well”.

Last week Pearson responded to a Telegraph story saying that the FT was being “touted for sale” with an emphatic denial.

Pearson said: "The FT is not for sale. Pearson has initiated no sale process regarding the FT, and Pearson categorically denies authorising any adviser or any bank, formally or informally, to identify or seek a purchaser for the FT."

In December, global print sales of the FT were down 14 per cent to just over 286,00 a day on average