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News UK in great shape after a year of progress

 

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CEO Mike Darcey tells Newsworks Review that 2014 was a year of major milestones for the company and that success is likely to be repeated in 2015.

On the operating front, just about everything turned out well for News UK last year - in certain cases very well. Let me count the ways:

In 2014 News UK moved from Thomas More Square in Wapping to new offices at London Bridge. The News Building places us at the heart of the city and provides a worthy home for our world-class journalism. Our 30-year lease for the site shows our commitment to secure the sustainable future we seek for the news, sport, analysis and opinion we produce every day - and we certainly benefit from sharing the building with our corporate cousins from Dow Jones, WSJ and Harper Collins.

Meanwhile, our business goes from strength to strength. Total paid sales across print and tablet combined for The Times and The Sunday Times are in growth, placing both titles on a firm footing for the future.

The Sun remains the most popular paper in Britain and is finding innovative new ways of offering its inimitable mix on new platforms.

As the England team flew to the World Cup last summer we delivered a free print copy of The Sun to 22 million households in England.

Its coverage of IS, introducing readers to 'Big Baghdadi', is a reminder of The Sun's priceless ability to capture an audience with a great headline.

Britain's most popular newspaper also used its amazing power to raise awareness about breast cancer through our partnership with the charity CoppaFeel! and the launch of the 'Check 'em Tuesday' campaign.

The Sunday Times ran a poll that transformed the Scottish referendum, having shaken the world of sport with revelations about football's governing body FIFA. The Times provides an early morning political briefing email - Red Box - that is read by tens of thousands.

Times+, the first membership programme of any UK paper, sold more than 28,000 tickets to members for 150 events and in 2014, for the first time, The Times and The Sunday Times jointly sponsored the Cheltenham Literature Festival. Our journalists hosted over 50 events across 10 days with 140,000 tickets sold.

Finally, our News Academy has been running since the start of 2014. Its mission is to invest in the future of journalism and inspire the next generation of journalists. In that short time our national conferences and school visits have reached more than 4,400 students at 200 schools.

2014 was a year of major milestones and 2015 promises to see many more.