Losses Continue At Independent Titles, Says Report
The Independent and Independent On Sunday newspapers turned in a loss of £15.7 million during 2001, according to a report on Media Guardian today. The site refers to the annual report of the papers’ parent company, Independent News & Media (INM), filed at Companies House last week.
INM bought the Independent titles in 1998 and declared that they would reach break-even by 2001, but in fact operating losses have increased from the £9.4 million in 2000 to £15.7 million in the twelve months to December 2001.
The papers already have the lowest marketing budgets in the national newspaper sector and editorial cuts have been set in place to try and push them towards breaking even. However, the prolonged advertising downturn has curtailed growth over the last year or so.
Sales of the Independent On Sunday have been in long term decline, whilst the Independent shows a mixed trend over the past couple of years, as shown.
