The Sun racks up £60m loss on back of ad declines and phone hacking charges
Britain’s top selling tabloid is still struggling to cope with the twin fall-out from continued declines in print advertising revenue and charges accruing from the phone hacking debacle, after posting losses of £62.8m.
The cumulative effect of these costs saw total revenues at The Sun decline to £446m from £456m in the year to 3 July, with a recent price increase failing to counteract its losses.
Nevertheless the figures represent an improvement on the £79m loss recorded in 2015, thanks mainly to a reduction in charges associated with the hacking scandal from £65m in 2015 to £30m in 2016.
Its bottom line was also hit by £14.8m in one-off restructuring costs and a £75.9m marketing splurge.
In a statement the publisher said: “The main driver of this decline [in revenues] was the challenging market conditions for newspaper print advertising with double-digit declines currently common across the industry.
“The print advertising revenue decline offset the growth in both print circulation [revenue], supported by an increase in the Monday to Friday cover price during the year, and excellent digital advertising growth, following the removal of the paywall for the Sun website.”
The dismal figures were contained in the most recent accounts filed at Companies House by News Group Newspapers, which also recorded The Times slipping to a pre-tax loss of £5m over the same period.