Guardian News & Media’s annual results for the year to the end of March 2013 showed digital revenue up by almost a third to £55.9m, or 28 per cent of total revenues of £196.3m. The publisher of the Guardian and the Observer still recorded a loss of £30.9m; its parent, Guardian Media Group, reported pre-tax profits of £22.7m. Dame Amelia Fawcett, chair of GMG, wrote in the annual report that “the real progress GMG has made over the last twelve months gives us increased confidence that we are heading positively and confidently in the right direction.”
Behind the headline figures, audience growth was in mobile. Unique monthly users rose 40 per cent to around 83 million by May 2013, after expansion into the United States in 2011 and Australia earlier in 2013, and mobile traffic hit a record of almost 22.8 million uniques in May.
Paid apps moved in opposite directions. Subscribers to the £3.99 six-month iPhone subscription fell from 82,000 to 57,259, while iPad subscribers rose from 17,000 to 22,951 — the more valuable of the two, at up to £11.99 a month.