??Your August update: The path to profitability

A note from our Managing Director

Welcome to a special edition of our FT Strategies newsletter. This month is the first in a two-part series dedicated to achieving profitability.

Although operational improvements are often looked over in the pursuit of top line growth, their importance cannot be overstated. Based on data from over 400 news organisations, we found that publishers that actively monitor their cost base and forecast revenues have an average profit margin of 6%, whereas those that don’t recorded a loss of approximately 4%.

At FT Strategies, we understand that navigating the current economic and market conditions can be challenging, and we are here to provide you with the tools and insights needed to thrive. Our Path to Profitability solution provides our clients with a comprehensive framework designed to help media organisations reduce costs, eliminate inefficiencies, and ultimately increase profits — whether that be relating to people, process, technology or capital/operating expenditure (CapEx/OpEx).

This month, we want to highlight two important resources:

1. The Beyond Print Toolkit, created by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the American Press Institute in partnership with FT Strategies. This must-read step-by-step guide helps news operators to reimagine the role of print and build sustainable long-term success.
2. Our latest article - No margin for error: Plotting your path to profitability - explores the various challenges media organisations face today, from declining referral traffic and print circulation to rising operational costs. We offer practical methods to improve profitability, such as enhancing organisational structures, streamlining processes, and adopting advanced digital tools.

We look forward to sharing more resources with you next month. In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like some advice, feel free to email me at [email protected].

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Best wishes,

The Beyond Print Toolkit — created by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the American Press Institute and provided to news organisations in partnership with FT Strategies — is designed to help local newspapers build engaged digital audiences, create robust new revenue streams, and reimagine the role of print, all while continuing to produce essential journalism that serves their communities.

Read the guide >

Recommended Reading

On Corporate Strategy:

• Axel Springer and KKR in talks to break up media empire (Financial Times)
• AI search engine Perplexity launches revenue sharing with six news publishers (NiemanLab)

On Revenue Growth:

• Toronto Star launches pay-per-article and daily passes for website access (PressGazette)
• Reach reports first digital revenue growth since 2022 (PressGazette)

On Operational Transformation:

• ABC News, stations launches ‘Climate Ready’ effort focuses on environmental ideas, solutions (NewscastStudio)
• El Nacional takes a whole-company approach to SEO (INMA)

On Data, AI & Tech Advisory:

• The Washington Post debuts AI chatbot (Axios)
• Google abandons plan to remove cookies from Chrome browser (Financial Times)