Newsweek's revenue surges 90% as turnaround strategy reaps rewards

The end of 2015 made positive reading for Newsweek, as the magazine posted its first ever profit in Europe, Middle East and Africa in the final quarter of last year, just two years after the publication was facing the prospect of collapsing.

Newsweek's owner IBT Media, which runs a host of other titles including online publication International Business Times, attributed the profit to a 90% surge in revenue, driven by a massive jump in advertising, which now accounts for 70% of the title's turnover.

Advertising revenues jumped 327% year-on-year in the last quarter on the back of IBT's strategy of increasing print and digital advertising as well as subscriptions across Europe, Middle East and Africa, while online traffic to europe.newsweek.com, has surged 250% so far in 2016 compared with the end of last year.

In 2014, 12 months after it had bought Newsweek from Barry Diller's IAC and other shareholders, IBT relaunched the title's print magazine and has since built a 12-member strong editorial team in London, comprising former Time magazine editor Matt McAllester as European editor, it has built a 12-person editorial team in London as well as former Prospect deputy editor Serena Kutchinsky as digital editor and Mail Online journalist Graham Smith as deputy online news editor.

"By investing in the industry's best editorial staff we are fulfilling a growing demand for excellent journalism, allowing us to increase subscriptions and gain new readers," said McAllester. "Maintaining Newsweek's reputation for high-quality content has enabled us to greatly increase our online and print audiences."

Newsweek said it has invested heavily in the move into video content and production to offer more choice for wider audiences and outlined plans to further grow its multimedia output in 2016, which included investing in mobile content.

"We will be developing our offering further in 2016, which will see even more effective results for our advertising partners," said Dev Pragad, co-founder and managing director at IBT Media for UK and EMEA. "The investment we've made is the key to our growth and a successful year ahead."