The Spectator – an update

The Spectator’s financial accounts are released today. We normally don’t make a fuss about them but these are unusual times, with plenty of interest in us as a company – since we are now, of course, up for sale. So for those interested, I’ll say a bit about our story so far.

When I became editor in 2009, the industry was just starting a descent that would see magazine sales fall by more than two thirds over the decade. But subscriptions to The Spectator doubled – and so has our income. We surpassed £20 million in revenue last year, with UK profits of £4.8 million (up from £4.4 million the year before) on revenue of £18.4 million. We’ve been investing in our US expansion recently with its revenue up 35 per cent to £727,000. Taking everything – our investment in the US and Australia and Apollo, our sister fine art magazine – group profits were a robust £2.6 million.

When lockdown first struck, we feared the worst. Laying on debates and other reader events, which have become a big part of our business, became impossible. Like almost all companies, we furloughed staff. But subscriptions then started to surge, due to increased demand from those forced to stay inside. We quickly worked out that we would not, after all, need the furlough money which is why we were (according to the Treasury) the first UK company to say we’d return cash to the taxpayer. These were, of course, freak conditions. The big question was how things would look when life returned to normal.

We now know. UK subscriptions, which jumped from 77,100 to more than 100,000 during lockdown, settled at an average of 93,000 last year: a far-higher base on which to build. This excludes 9,390 for our Australia edition (the normal weekly Spectator but with a dozen pages of Australian content) and 15,000 subscriptions to the US-based Spectator World. Just under 80 per cent of our income comes from readers (i.e. subscription or newsstand). The rest: advertising (10 per cent) events (6 per cent) and broadcast (4 per cent). 

Our new Spectator App is now pulling equal to the website in terms of subscriber page views so traffic only gives part of our story. Even so, spectator.co.uk hit an average of 8.2 million monthly page views last year, a record high and up from eight million the year before. Website upgrades have left us with the fastest website of any comparable publication. A third of our traffic comes from search engines, exposing us to a record number of potential new subscribers (search traffic tends not to be from existing subscribers). 

Perhaps the most striking aspect of The Spectator as a company is that 80 per cent of what subscribers read is what we used to call ‘blogs’: digital-only articles, reviews and analysis. It’s stuff that simply didn’t exist 15 years ago. That’s why we think of ourselves as the world’s oldest magazine with the mindset (and, recently, profile) of a startup. 

Our expansion has brought a whole new subscriber base, who discover us through podcasts, blogs or TV. We pride ourselves in consistency; that everything we do is to the same standard and visibly (or audibly) cut from the same cloth. You can draw a line from what we do to the first-ever Spectator of 1711 (more on that here). To some, The Spectator is first and foremost a podcast platform. To others, it provides the best news emails out there. To most of our readers, it’s the world’s greatest magazine.

A subscription now includes:

• Live analysis online, and a richer variety than you’ll find elsewhere. An unrivalled breadth of writers and commentators responding quickly to the most important news as it breaks, often putting us ahead of newspapers several times our size. When Prigozhin moved on Moscow – as momentous a day as any in recent Russian history  – we had far more coverage by 6 p.m. than any newspaper. 

• Two daily news emails. Our Lunchtime Espresso broke through 120,000 subscribers recently and the Evening Blend, created by Isabel Hardman ten years ago, goes to more than 140,000 people. The daily average open rate is 43 per cent. 
• An app now used by half of our subscribers to access us digitally.
• Specialist coverage. Our political coverage (and Coffee House Shots, our podcast) goes deeper than the newspapers. Cindy Yu’s Chinese Whispers podcast offers more insight into China as a country (as opposed to simply the government) than you will find anywhere else. Svitlana Morenets’s Ukraine in Focus is the only such newsletter written by a Ukrainian journalist, offering insight only she can bring.
• A data hub, the first of its kind, used by readers and cabinet members to understand the latest on everything from wholesale gas price to small boat arrivals. 
• Invitations to our live events (we’re the only publication to have sold out the London Palladium. Twice).
• And Spectator TV has now broken through 300,000 subscribers. The channel was launched during lockdown with cameras we found on eBay: the difference between the first episode and the latest is testimony to the professionalism of our five-person small broadcast team (who also produce our 14 podcasts). 

When I became editor the entire editorial team could fit into a minibus. Now, we’d need two minibuses: and for those passengers, it has been quite a year for award nominations. Highlights include:

• Our Evening Blend newsletter won 'Best Politics Newsletter' at this summer’s Publisher Newsletter Awards. It was also shortlisted for 'Newsletter of the Year' at the Future of Media Awards…
• …as was our recently relaunched App.
• The Lunchtime Espresso newsletter has been nominated for two industry awards since last year. 
• At the UK press awards:
  • Economics Editor Kate Andrews (who wasn’t even a journalist until she joined us in 2020) was shortlisted for Business and Finance Journalist of the year at the Press Awards for her cover story raising the alarm on inflation.
  • Cover artist Morten Morland was up for illustrator of the year.
  • And Coffee House Shots was shortlisted for podcast of the year.
• Sam Leith’s Book Club podcast was shortlisted at the BSME Talent awards.
• Michael Simmons was highly commended in the data category at the Wincott Awards.
• Political Correspondent James Heale and Newsletter Editor Hannah Tomes both made MHP Group’s 30 to Watch list, for political and feature writing respectively.

Not a bad haul for a team of just 37 journalists. But without a doubt our greatest asset is you, the readers. You made our success possible and you have put us on such a stable footing. We’re going into this sales process in a strong position, thanks to you. Soon, a new chapter will open in our history. And I have not the slightest doubt that it will be the best yet.