8 August 2019

Eighty Per Cent Of GMG Ad Revenues Now Digital

Eighty per cent of Guardian Media Group’s advertising revenues come from digital, with the publisher delivering revenue growth in 2018/19 of three per cent through growth in reader revenues and advertising.

Growth in digital advertising revenues and international growth more than offset declines in newsstand sales and print advertising revenues, GMG said in its annual report for the year ending on 31 March 2019.

The publisher achieved a record 163 million unique browsers and 1.35 billion page views in March 2019 with 655,000 regular paying supporters with an additional 300,000 one-off contributors in the last 12 months.

Group digital revenue for the year increased by 15 per cent to £125.3 million due to increased reader revenues and higher digital advertising revenues and group revenue increased three per cent to £224.5 million.

Guardian Media Group chief executive David Pemsel said: “Achieving a third successive year of revenue growth and meeting our break even target for GNM is a tribute to everyone within our organisation.

“GNM has been transformed in the last three years into a more reader-funded, more digital and more international business. Going forward we have a clear strategy and a set of strengths which will help ensure the Guardian’s sustainability despite the ongoing challenges in the global media sector.”

Guardian Media Group chair Neil Berkett said: “Over the past three years the Group has made substantial progress – establishing and delivering on an ambitious strategy, and in the process forging a new business model for high-quality journalism, true to the Guardian’s purpose.

“Achieving the break even target for GNM for the first time since the 1990s is an outstanding result. As we look to the future, GMG now has a solid foundation from which to continue to deliver high quality independent journalism.”

In April 2019, editor-in-chief Katharine Viner and chief executive David Pemsel announced the Guardian’s new three year strategy. The key goals of the strategy are:

  • Two million supporters who financially contribute to the Guardian through regular or one-off payments or subscriptions by 2022.
  • Financial sustainability, by ensuring cash requirements remain in line with the expected long-term annual returns of the Scott Trust Endowment Fund of £25-30 million.