There are 599K subscribers to the UK daily Financial Times, and the makeup of that subscriber base is now tilted toward the internet – 300K of the subscriptions are online, compared to 299K that are still getting a print copy.
In all, the publication claims to have 2.1M readers, it claims that digital subscriptions grew at at 31% pace compared to 2% for print, and it further claims that is revenue has actually grown significantly.
It said overall sales amounted to the equivalent of $339M during the first half of 2012, compared to $203M during the same period the year prior.
The company noted that advertising remains volatile and unpredictable, and that steady subscription income was helping FT hold up against that unpredictability.
25% of ft.com usage is already being accessed via mobile devices. The company is working to expand its availability as an application on a variety of platforms.
RBR-TVBR observation: The move from print to virtual has been slow and painful for most publications, but it is good to see a few are starting to make the business model work in the Internet Age.
