The Sun reduces losses with cover price hike as The Times boosts subscriber numbers

The Sun has managed to reduce its pre-tax loss, thanks to an increase in cover price which helped counterbalance declining newspaper sales.

Separate accounts for The Times reveal that its financial situation has remained largely unchanged during the most recent financial year, while TalkTV continues to suffer significant losses, as reported by City AM.

Both newspaper groups and the now-online TV channel are part of the larger News UK group, owned by Rupert Murdoch.

The Sun, which files its accounts under News Group Newspapers with Companies House, cut its pre-tax loss from £65.8m to £18m in the year ending 30 June, 2024.

During the same period, its turnover dropped from £305.2m to £296.3m.

Over the course of the year, The Sun's UK online digital audience decreased from 23.8m to 23.4m.

The newspaper attributed the fall in turnover to "driven by structural declines in the print market and the volatility of social platforms' approaches towards news content, which negatively impacted both print and digital advertising revenues," which adversely affected both print and digital advertising revenues.

However, The Sun noted that circulation revenue benefited from a cover price increase during the year, which helped offset volume declines.

The Times, which reports its accounts via Times Media, posted a turnover of £383.4m for the year, a slight decrease from the £385.7m reported in the previous 12 months.

Its pre-tax profit saw a minor increase from £60.9m to £61m over the same period.

The Times has reported a significant increase in digital paid subscriptions, reaching 594,000 this year, an increase of 29,000. This represents 84 per cent of its total subscriber base of 705,000.

Times Radio also boasted a weekly audience of 478,000, according to the publisher.

However, TalkTV, which is published by News UK Broadcasting, continues to struggle financially. The company reported a pre-tax loss of £50.3m for the year, a slight improvement from the previous year's loss of £53.7m.

Despite this, the company's turnover saw an increase, rising from £5.6m to £6.6m over the same period.

TalkTV was launched in April 2022 with Piers Morgan Uncensored as its flagship show. However, in February 2024, it was announced that Piers Morgan's show would be leaving TalkTV for YouTube.