Mediahuis, the owner of Belfast Telegraph publisher Independent News & Media, generated a profit of just under €60m (£51.8m)last year and cut debt, despite the impact of the Covid pandemic.
Financial results for 2020 show one-in-three subscriptions across the group’s titles in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Ireland is now a digital product, in many cases combined with a weekend newspaper.
In Northern Ireland, Belfasttelegraph.co.uk secured an average of more than 211,000 readers every day, with Independent.ie reaching about 800,000 people.
The total number of subscribers in the group exceeded 1.7 million at year end as a result of an 11% like-for-like increase plus the impact of acquisitions. The year saw the launch of paid digital subscription products for Independent.ie and The Belfast Telegraph.