The Sun newspaper on a newsstand in January 2025. Picture: Shutterstock/Steve Travelguide
Revenue at the publisher of The Sun fell 8% last year blamed in part on the impact of changes at platforms like Google on traffic and advertising.
News Group Newspapers, the subsidiary of News UK that publishes The Sun, reported revenue of £273.1m in the year to 29 June 2025 (down from £296m in 2024).
Pre-tax losses increased from £18m in 2024 to £53.3m, just below the 2021 level (loss of £51.1m).
One off-charges increased from £14.1m to £36.7m including a £7.4m charge relating to legal fees and damages over previous illegal newsgathering activities at The Sun and News of the World. In 2024 there had been a £13.7m credit in respect of legal fees and damages, meaning the overall cost of litigation was £21m higher for the business in 2025 than it was in 2024.
In January 2025 NGN settled claims brought by Prince Harry and Sir Tom Watson on the eve of a trial by admitting “unlawful activities” took place at The Sun and issuing a “full and unequivocal apology” as well as a payout rumoured to be in excess of £10m. Some 39 other claims were also settled.
The company said: “It is not possible to estimate the liability for additional claims given the information that is currently available to the company. If more claims are filed and additional information becomes available in the civil cases, the company will update the liability provision for such matters.”
Wider costs relating to the cases were up from £26.8m in 2024 to £28.4m (but down compared to £45.3m in 2023 ).
A further £877,000 in costs (down from £935,000) were incurred for legal and professional fees related to the Management and Standards Committee that dealt with the hacking investigations into The News of the World.
Social platforms’ approach to news hit digital audiences
The accounts published on Companies House noted: “During the year, the volatility of social platforms’ approach toward news content has adversely impacted digital audiences across the industry.”
The publisher cited Pamco (Publishers Audience Measurement Company) data to show its monthly digital audience in the UK had fallen a fifth in a year from 23.4 million in H1 2024 to 18.7 million at the start of 2025.
NGN cited “structural declines in the print market and lower digital advertising revenues, driven by a decline in traffic, due to algorithm changes at certain platforms” as the explanation for its decrease in revenue.
Revenue has declined every year since 2022.
The publisher did not name any platforms in particular but many publishers have seen decreased search traffic coming from Google after it rolled out its AI summaries at the top of search results in 2024, resulting in many users no longer feeling the need to click through to the websites that originate information.
In the UK, The Sun’s audience was 20.2 million in February , up 0.6% year on year according to Ipsos iris. In the US The Sun’s Similarweb visits were up 10% in March compared to a year earlier to 26.5 million.
[Read more: Global publisher Google traffic dropped by a third in 2025 ]
NGN also cited a decline in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation charges (EBITDA) from a loss of £1.4m to one of £37m, saying this was “a result of increased restructuring and one-off legal costs, along with lower turnover”.
Editorial staff numbers were down from an average of 552 in 2024 to 530. Cuts during the financial year included journalists at The Sun US in September 2024 to “reset the strategy and resize the team to secure the long term, sustainable future for The Sun’s business in the US”.
The growth areas launched during the financial year were partial website paywall Sun Club , described as “positioned for significant growth”, and a “ video-focused strategy to engage new audiences, with the Sun Originals team set to deliver innovative, premium shows for sponsorship”.
Major global events such as the 2026 World Cup were described as a “large revenue opportunity across both the UK and US markets” in video.
[Read more: Sun grows video audience to 1bn+ monthly views with 25 new shows ]
The Sun is also “proactively exploring strategic opportunities to expand our betting and gaming offering and open new, diversified revenue streams” although it noted new regulations in the industry are incoming.
Times targets US, travel and video for investment
Times Media revenues, which include The Times, The Sunday Times and Times Radio, grew revenue by 2% to £390.7m, attributed to digital subscriber increases and enhanced online advertising experiences narrowly offsetting print declines.
Pre-tax profit was up 13% year on year to £69.2m.
The Times (including the Times Literary Supplement or TLS) now has 659,000 digital subscribers , up 7% in the past year.
The Companies House accounts revealed plans for “targeted investment” in the US, travel content and video.
Times Media editorial staff grew from 639 in 2024 to 651.
[Read more: Times ‘fewer, better stories’ strategy leads to run of audience growth ]
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