Pearson reports 79% profits increase
Financial Times owner Pearson has reported a 79% increase in operating profits for the first half of the year. Pre-tax profits were £94 million, compared with a loss of £7 million in the first half of 2009.
The group’s underlying revenues increased by 7% year-on-year, up to £2.34 billion from £2.14 billion. Pearson also upped its full year performance prediction to 70p per share, forecasting a 7% increase in earnings – although the company does expect slower growth in the second half of 2010.
Operating profits have more than doubled at its FT Group, which is home to the Financial Times and book publisher Penguin, moving from £14 million to £30 million in the first half of the year. FT Group also reported an underlying revenue rise of 7%, to £192 million.
“The 2010 finish line isn’t yet in sight, but this is as good a start to your year as I’ve seen,” said Dame Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of Pearson. “That boosts our confidence in the full year, enabling us to brighten our outlook and raise our guidance. We’ve invested consistently in global and digital education and information and that’s helping every part of Pearson grow strongly, even in uncertain markets.”
The digital readership at FT Group has grown 27% year-on-year in the first half of the year, to 149,000 readers, and registered users of FT.com have also increased, up 77% to 2.5 million. The iPad application has also been successful, with almost 250,000 downloads.
The FT’s iPad app is currently free to download, and has free access until the 31st July. However, after this, users will require a FT.com subscription to access the app. This costs £18.99 a month, or £197.08 annually, for a standard subscription which includes access to both the FT website and the iPad app.
By comparison, The Times‘ iPad app costs £9.99 for 30 days, and reportedly has 12,500 users.
Digital revenues now account for over a quarter of the total revenue at Pearson.
This follows a 13% increase in pre-tax profits for 2009, and a 7% increase for the first quarter.
Newspaper business models, paying for content and profitability will be discussed at Mediatel Group’s ‘Future of National Newspapers’ seminar on October 1st.