Ft prospers on its digital strategy

The Ft Group this morning bucked the trend for media organisations in reporting profits up 21% at £84m and revenues rising 11% at £374m.

According to Paid media its

strategy is clear - it’s increased its digital revenue composition from 28 percent of the whole in 2000 to 63 percent in 2007, and slimmed its reliance on advertising from 30 percent to 52 percent of sales in the same period.

So is this a successful business model to follow?

The Company has teetered between the free and the paid content market.At the back end of last year it limited free web articles to 5 per month with 30 free if you register.Paying subscribers have remained static in that period at about 100,000.

The Company has a great advantage though.It has a core market of highly affluent readers who will attract advertisers revenue even during these difficult times.

Pearson's Ceo,Marjorie Scardino, commented that

'Our momentum is strong, even in these tough economic conditions. We have...an effective growth strategy based on quality content, digital innovation and international expansion. That strategy makes us confident that 2008 will be another record year, and that we will continue to grow,'