The Telegraph Media Group has reported growing profit in 2022 and said it is on course to hit one million subscribers by the end of 2023.
The title was effectively repossessed by Lloyds Banking Group in June and they are currently seeking a buyer to recoup a reported £1bn debt owed by the Barclay family.
TMG noted in a press release ahead of its accounts being published to Companies House that it expects profitability will increase further this year “despite continued decline in print advertising revenues and well-documented inflationary pressures”. And it said it is seeing healthy year-on-year growth across all digital areas “in contrast to a challenging industry environment”.
It reported turnover for 2022 up 4% year-on-year to £254.2m and profit before tax up 32% to £39m.
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Subscriptions in 2022 were up 2% overall to 734,000 with digital-only subs up 8% to 587,000.
But subscriptions have seen a boost since then, helped in part by the acquisition of the Chelsea Magazine company in March which includes The English Home and The English Garden.
Telegraph Q2 2023 subscriber numbers revealed
As of June 2023 the Telegraph had 129,116 Telegraph print subscribers, 637,717 Telegraph digital subscribers and 207,876 “other” subscribers.
The “other” category comprises: Telegraph Wine Cellar, Telegraph Puzzles and Chelsea Magazine Company subscriptions.
The Telegraph said average revenue per subscriptions was £150.17.
The publisher said digital subscription revenues rose by £13.8m to £57.9m last year and that subscriptions (including print) comprised 51% of total revenue in the year.
TMG said its app, relaunched in 2021, is the most-used paid-for news app in the UK according to Ipsos data.
Telegraph chief executive Nick Hugh said: “Our vision is to reach more paying readers than at any other time in our history, and we are firmly on track to achieve our one million subscriptions target in 2023 ahead of our year-end target.
“Subscription revenues now represent the majority of the group, and this recurring revenue visibility enables us to make strategic long-term investment.”
Commenting on the outlook for 2023 TMG said: “The company has a transformation programme in place to ensure the right investments will be made to continue to drive growth in subscriptions, allow the business to adapt to market trends and better align with the subscription-first strategy.
“This includes ongoing investment in journalism, the newsroom, data, digital products and the subscriber experience.”
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