Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper empire saw an operating loss of £3.5m in the 12 months leading to June 2014.
News Corp UK & Ireland, which owns the Sun, the Sunday Times, the Times and Harper Collins, saw profits drop from £51m in June 2012/13 to a loss of £3.5m in June 2013/14, according to results filed at Companies House.
The Sun, the UK’s best-selling tabloid, experienced a turbulent year after operating profits dropped from £62.1m to £35.6m. Furthermore, the title’s revenue dropped by 5.5 per cent to £489m “due to continuing market decline in newspaper circulation, particularly for the popular segment”.
This is despite the Sun boasting over 225,000 online subscribers last month, a “success” which it attributed to its customer service “innovation”.
Overall, News Corp UK lost £75m. This compares to 2012/13 which saw a £75.3m loss, substantially inflated by a glaring £40m expenditure on legal settlements and lawyer fees.
News Corp’s transition to the digital platform has experienced its fair share of hiccups, in September, it branded Google a ‘cynical giant’ in an attack where it claimed the search giant had “overwhelming power”.
