How to fund a national newsbrand?
The latest financial figures from the Daily Telegraph provide a decent snapshot of the latest state of play in a difficult art – with good news and bad, writes Raymond Snoddy
The front pages of The Daily Telegraph and The Times are understandably different on the latest of many crucial days for Boris Johnson and Brexit.
The Remain leaning Times has Johnson’s back to the wall in a desperate fight against EU attempts to extend negotiations into next year because of the complexity of the legal texts that would be involved in any deal.
Off stage ITV’s Robert Peston is quoting an unnamed Cabinet minister saying that the prospects of a deal were not great because of the unwillingness of Ulster’s Democratic Unionist Party to accept anything that would pass through negotiations with the EU.
The ultra-Brexit Daily Telegraph is markedly more optimistic highlighting the fact that Prime Minister Johnson is preparing to unveil a Brexit deal and is “increasingly optimistic” that a deal can be agreed by the end of the week.
The hardline Brexiteers emerging from Downing Street were suggesting they were prepared to back the deal likely on offer, although the DUP was still signalling “reservations.”
Of course Saturday is a long way off in Brexit time but Telegraph readers were at least being encouraged to believe that in the end everything would be all right.
Yet it was a curiously reticent approach by Telegraph standards. The splash was across a modest two columns and there was little else – certainly no thumping leader – apart from an analysis of the five groups that will define the Johnson Premiership, including the DUP whose language is becoming more intransigent by the hour.
Matt, the cartoonist, may be the most prophetic of all – “Only 70 Brexit Crunch Days to Christmas.”
We will learn within the next few days, or weeks, or months whether the Daily Telegraph rather than The Times is on the right side of history.
But on another crunch issue – how to fund a national newspaper in the internet age – The Times may now be showing the surer touch, albeit after great initial controversy.
The latest financial figures from the Daily Telegraph provide a decent snapshot of the latest state of play in a difficult art – with good news and less good.
On their own the Telegraph Media Group figures for 2018, excluding Telegraph Events, are sobering, showing pre-tax profits down 93 per cent to £900,000 on revenues of £271 million.
Unsurprisingly the company puts the drop down to “the structural decline across the industry in print advertising and circulation” and who can deny such a trend.
The Telegraph chief executive Nick Hugh expressed himself extremely pleased to have beaten the company’s own financial targets, and apart from the problems of structural change, noted the impact of “economic uncertainty.”
Alas he could not bring himself to mention the “B” word which many economic commentators believe is one of the main drivers causing economic uncertainty alongside the activities of Donald J. Trump.
Double-digit print circulation declines are near universal these days, but the Telegraph is a long way off being the best performer in the national market.
The Daily Telegraph now has an average monthly circulation of 315,270 an 18 per cent fall from 385,346 in January 2018. The Sunday Telegraph’s circulation fell 16.5 per cent in the same period to 249,425. In the year to July, the Telegraph was down 12 per cent exactly the same as The Times.
Some of us are old enough to remember the general angst around the Daily Telegraph when the circulation fell below 1 million for the first time – it seemed like the end of the world as we knew it.
Now selling more than 500,000 would seem like a distant dream.
The better news is that the Daily Telegraph is continuing to sign up digital subscribers, although the proportion of registered users to paying subscribers is relatively weak – 5 million compared with 400,000.
In the age old dilemma between visibility and extracting money from behind a pay wall, the Telegraph has come down more on the side of visibility, with obvious financial consequences. The Times has moved more in the direction of pay with its premium service.
It is impossible to compare directly the financial performance of the Daily Telegraph and The Times because The Times is part of a larger publishing group and who knows how costs are allocated between The Times and the Sun. Certainly in the past the Sun helped to pay for Times losses.
The latest figures for 2018 show increased revenues and profits for Times Newspapers with pre-tax profits up to £9.6 million compared with an £8 million loss in 2017.
Turnover was up 2 per cent year-on-year to £326.4 million and the most positive aspect was the growth in digital advertising and subscription.
The subscription numbers rose by 12 per cent or 55,000 readers to pass the half a million mark by 2,000.
For the first time the Times and Sunday Times had, marginally, more digital subscribers than print.
At first glance The Times seems to be well ahead of the Telegraph on print sales at 376,975 but the difference is entirely made up of more than 53,000 Times bulk sales.
So it’s a very close contest between the Telegraph and The Times though The Times seems to be winning the financial battle on points thanks to its brave initial concentration on paying customers only.
The hit to the paper’s visibility has been considerable – more than 85 per cent since the pay wall was introduced nearly a decade ago.
When once The Times was reached by 27 million online now it is closer to 2 million.
We can now conclude that the sacrifice may have been worth it, as was the idea that you can’t have quality journalism for nothing in the long-term.
As for the bets on Brexit, at the moment The Times approach seems both more measured and sustainable whatever the outcome of recent events.
There is some anecdotal evidence that Remain-supporting Conservatives – there are some – find the robust Brexit coverage of the Telegraph not to their taste.
However, either a second referendum or an early general election could provide the Daily Telegraph with an editorial shot in the arm and help justify the “great optimism” shown by Nick Hugh that his plan is working.