Covid and advertising shifts hurt profits, as News Group Newspapers seeks to end ongoing managed hearings
The Sun recorded a loss of £51m last year as the pandemic and a shift of advertising spend online hurt its newspapers, while its parent company sought to end the phone hacking legal cases that have cost it hundreds of millions of pounds over the past 15 years.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, which publishes the Sun and retains liability for the activities of the defunct News of the World, spent £49m on legal fees and damages relating to historical phone-hacking allegations in the year to 27 June 2021. This compares with the £80m NGN spent the previous year.
