FT record profit amid ‘B2B push’
For 2025, the Financial Times Group celebrated the 10th anniversary of its acquisition by Nikkei with revenue up by 5% to £566mn (35% in the UK), operating profit up 23% to £51.8mn and estimated EBITDA of £74mn (13%). Ad revenue (52% digital) was up 5% to £15mn, its best year since 2012. Most of the FT’s diversified businesses achieved standout growth. Revenue at events business FT Live was up to 61%, following the £77mn acquisition in 2025 of the former Euromoney fixed income conference business Invisso. Operating profit was £20mn (33%).
The c£80mn- revenue FT Specialist (including The Banker and Endpoints News) grew revenue by 19%. But media consultancy FT Strategies revenue of £12mn was 20% down. The FT Group now claims some 3.5mn people are paying for its content and events globally, a disclosure related to the current reorganization under which it is increasingly targeting corporate “enterprise” subscriber-advertiser-sponsor-user relationships with companies, in contrast to a legacy built round individual news brand subscriptions and ancillary relationships for magazines, events and digital services. Apart from creating a ‘single view’ of corporate readers-users-delegates, the FT group is becoming more obviously a B2B organization. This strategy may ultimately also grow the company’s business in education, training and consultancy, as well as events and transactional data.
This week’s departure of FT Specialist’s European managing director Carola York may be part of a strategy to split the £40mn-revenue (mostly subs-funded) UK-based unit between reader revenue and advertisers-sponsors, rather than operating as a semi-autonomous publishing company. The FT itself has 1.9mn paying readers across all formats (more than 80% digital). CEO Jon Slade reportedly said that the FT website has “700k+ habitual users”. The FT’s Nikkei Inc parent recorded the equivalent of £1.9bn revenue and £99mn pre-tax profit for 2025. Background.
Trade show boom
The world’s 20 biggest trade show organizers generated revenue of $11.7bn in 2025 – up 14% – according to Grant Thornton Stax’sTop 20 ranking. Much of the growth was accounted for by the market leader Informa whose exhibitions revenue increased by 30% to $2.7bn, driven by the 2024 acquisition of Ascential (Cannes Lions and Money 20/20). Excluding Informa (which has a 32% share of the top 20 revenue), the rest grew by less than 7%. GL Events made the biggest jump, from 15th to 11th, on a 40% rise in revenue, and Infopro Digital entered the ranking at 19th in place of IFEMA (Spain). The annual ranking, inevitably, partly reflects the timing of large non-annual shows. Messe München climbed to fifth on 28% growth, helped by the every-three-years Bauma construction show. Six of the Top 20 organizers are now owned by private equity: Clarion (Blackstone), Hyve (Hellman & Freedman), Forge/ Emerald (Apollo), CloserStill (Providence/ Searchlight), Infopro Digital (TowerBrook) and Easyfairs (Inflexion). They collectively grew revenue by 11.4% last year. Traditional European institutional organizers (including German Messen, operators of municipal venues) saw flat aggregate growth compared with pre-pandemic 2019. (Grant Thornton Stax) Background.
- Chris Ferrell, the founder and CEO of the nine-year-old Endeavor Business Media, the largest multi-sector B2B publisher in the US, has left the company (along with other members of his senior team) after what has been a disappointing financial performance. Background
- The pe-owned, Anglo-American B2B Arc Media increased revenue in 2025 by 15% to $108mn. But this growth was wholly due to the $15.2mn of revenue from Touchpoint Markets which had been acquired in June 2025 for $14.4mn. Similarly, the increase to Arc’s $26.2 EBITDA was effectively also provided by Touchpoint’s $2.4mn during the year. Events accounted for 62% of total revenue (68% in 2024), digital for 28% (21%) and print 10% (12%). In 2025, the US became Arc’s largest market for the first time, accounting for $50% of revenue (45%) while the UK was 45% (49%). Background
- Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, USA Today Co, and The Seattle Times are among more than 300 news publisher members of the News/Media Alliance urging the US Congress to crack down on “bad bots” that scrape their content for AI training without permission. (Digiday)
- The UK-based all-digital independent news had its ninth consecutive year of growth and profit in 2025 with revenue of £55.1mn – an increase of 4% and PBT of £3.5mn, up 9%. 66% of revenue is from the UK and 24% from the US. Background
- Monthly listeners of podcasts in the UK have doubled since 2019, from 18% to 39% this year, according to media regulator Ofcom research. More than a quarter (27%) of Brits now say they listen to podcasts each week. (Advanced Television)
- Condé Nast seven-year CEO Roger Lynch is leaving to become CEO of US toymaker Mattel. Former Forbes chief executive Mike Perlis will become interim CEO during a search process. Background
- The Definitive AI Forum for Media,B2B Information & Events 2026 on 18 November 2026, in London after a sellout in 2025. Click the link for full details of all 32 confirmed speakers from the UK, US and EU, including the CEOs and leaders of: CloserStill, Independent Media, Daily Mail, Taylor & Francis, Immediate Media, The Economist, The Channel Company, Forge, Bauer Media Group, RX, Easyfairs, Associated Press, Newsquest, TMT Finance, William Reed, PA Media Group, News UK, Financial Times, Informa, Terrapinn, Miso AI, and Sifted EU. Capacity is limited to 210. Discount rates for groups. Presented by Flashes & Flames. The Definitive AI Forum for Media, B2B Information & Events 2026. BOOK NOW!
