French media brand Figaro says its transformation strategy is paying off, with digital subscriptions up 60 per cent in two years and even print advertising up.

Of group sales of 500 million Euros (A$765 million) – up by six per cent on 2020 – half of its revenue is now from digital operations.

Figures presented by Groupe Figaro managing director Marc Feuillé (pictured) show “a very high upturn” in advertising revenue, which was up 15 per cent, including a new rise of 14 per cent in digital advertising (+27 per cent since 2019) and an increase of 17 per cent in print advertising revenue.

Revenue from readership has increased for Le Figaro, with 400,000 subscribers (250,000 of them digital subscribers) a 60 per cent increase over two years. All publications saw their distribution figures go up in 2021 (seven per cent for Le Figaro, +2.1 per cent for Figaro Magazine, and +3.2% for Madame Figaro).

Feuillé says the results are “concrete effects” of a transformation strategy implemented over several years.

With operating profits at 31 million Euros in 2021, Groupe Figaro “showed a revival of past performances” and exceeded its 2019 profits (28 million Euros). While ticketing and travel operations are still being heavily impacted by the pandemic, operating profits reached 37 million Euros, “the best result it has had for ten years”.

In 2020, Groupe Figaro had a 7 million Euros deficit, burdened by the loss of “standstill” operations such as events management, ticketing, cruises and travel. “Above all, in 2021, Groupe Figaro generated a record cash flow of almost 50 million Euros (EBITDA),” he said.

The group claims a monthly average of more than 25 million unique visitors (25.7 million recorded in December), the Figaro site had its best-ever year in 2021 in terms of users, according to Médiamétrie, staying at the top of the ranking for French news websites for over 12 consecutive months.

Subsidiary CCM Benchmark – which operates free internet sites – achieved a profitability level of 30 per cent on sales of more than 65 million Euros. Feuillé says this is because themes chosen are highly popular with readers; “Le Journal des Femmes, for example, has become the leading French website for women with over 20 million UUs.”

Feuillé says the contribution of digital operations to revenue means that it can improve profitability and ensure growth. “The strength of our business model means that, on our websites, we can have both news that readers pay for as well as thematic and service brand news that is free and which attract high numbers of readers.”

Plans include improving content quality in current formats – print, web, apps – and deploying them in social media and audiovisual formats.