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THE Sun is still shining as the number one news brand in the UK despite a challenging market.
Fresh accounts show that The Sun’s news content still reaches 23.4 million Brits despite recent changes by US tech giants including Facebook which no longer prioritise journalism on their websites.
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The shake-up by social media companies, which affects how they display news stories, has hit the entire media industry.
However, The Sun’s long history of scoops has continued to be the reason for boosts in newspaper circulation, with exclusives on Huw Edwards and ongoing coverage of the Royal family proving popular with readers.
And in the most recent release by industry body, PAMCo The Sun remains the UK’s number one news brand in terms of monthly, daily and weekly reach. The analysis applies to the first half of FY25.
The Sun’s YouTube channel has become the biggest publisher channel in the UK and now counts more than six million subscribers. Since launch, the channel has driven 5.3 billion views with over 135 million hours of content consumed.
Defence editor Jerome Stakey’s War in Ukraine videos have also been viewed over 30 million times, while Political Editor Harry Cole’s election debate footage was viewed 15 million times across all channels.
Accounts for News Group Newspapers show that The Sun has considerably narrowed its adjusted operating losses by 85 per cent from £62.6million to £9.2million in the year to the end of June 2024.
On a statutory basis, which also includes all legal costs and one-off charges, NGN’s losses have also shrunk by almost three quarters from £65.9million to £18million.
This is partly linked to a lower level of costs related to the closure of News of the World, which was part of the same company.
The costs are covered by an indemnity from Fox Corp.
Last year the publisher faced one-off charges of £51.6million but this dropped to £14.1million in 2024, partly helped by £13.6million of credit. The credit recognises the generous provision put aside to cover potential claims ahead of a deadline in 2022.
Stripping out legal costs, NGN operating losses narrowed to £4.2million compared to £14.3 million on the same basis.
Revenues for NGN slipped by 2 per cent to £296.3million, largely due to a reduction in advertising revenues due to the volatility of online social media firms.
During the year the business was helped by easing inflationary pressures, such as lower energy and print costs, resulting in NGN restructuring costs of £4.3million.
