The Times newspaper will shortly launch a television service, Times TV, said News International chairman Less Hinton at the World Newspaper Congress in Moscow today.
The television venture will be sponsored by computer company Cisco Systems and the service will have aggregated content provided by partners. News International also publishes the Sun and News of the World, and recently opened a magazine division.
Mr Hinton also revealed that revenue at Times Online had risen 45% year on year and that revenues were being created by online activities and mobile phone games such as sudoku, quizzes and crosswords that could be sent to mobile phones.
The Sun‘s website enjoyed a record month in March, with 6.8 million users and 136 million page impressions, Mr Hinton said. Entries into its online fantasy football competition were up 14%, while its online poker game was challenging the Page3.com site in popularity.
“When its online readers are added to its newspaper readers, on some days the Sun reaches as many eyeballs as some of our most popular TV programmes,” said Hinton.
Mr Hinton said News International was heavily investing in new printing presses to bring full colour to its papers and that he believed newspapers would remain a strong force in 20 years. His comments come as predictions show full colour advertising in the press has risen by more than 11% (see Colour Ads To Overtake Mono In National Press).
Mr Hinton said that News International had a strategy of “protect and extend” its newspaper brands through the internet. He said that in countries with a high number of readers with broadband connections, newspaper websites would have to change.
“In the long term, text-based newspapers online are not going to be the answer. There has to be a merging of both,” he said.
Times editor Robert Thompson has also revealed plans for the newspaper to expand abroad, aiming to lure 10,000 readers for a new Stateside edition.
The US launch will make use of the distribution and printing facilities of fellow News Corp paper the New York Post to cap costs. Like the Post, it will be printed in a smaller, tabloid-style format.
The US venture is likely to be followed shortly by further moves to boost the global presence of the Times, which already has a deal to provide news to the world’s biggest paper, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun, Thomson told Reuters.
In Britain, the Times is the second best selling “quality” newspaper behind its rival the Telegraph, owned by the Barclay brothers.
The Times: 020 7782 5000 www.timesonline.co.uk