Hearst UK, the British arm of the US company that publishes magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Esquire and Good Housekeeping, has tripled its pre-tax profits to £17.4m, reports The Independent.
And it attributes part of that rise to digital sales, reporting double-digit growth in the numbers of people reading 10 of their 19 digital editions.
Turnover was up 3.4% to £335.6m as the group increased in size following its 2011 purchase of Hachette Filipacchi. But it also disposed of some titles, including Prima Baby and Coast.
A Hearst UK spokesman said: "The transformation of our business post-integration to a media-neutral, digitally led company is creating a positive and interesting story for Hearst UK."
His view is supported by Nathaniel Philippe, one of the founders of LeKiosk, a digital newsstand that sells online subscriptions to magazines.
He spoke of Hearst's "especially impressive" digital growth, pointing out that "a new generation of magazine readers will only emerge when there are new digital editions of the magazines they want to read and new models for buying and consuming those magazines."
He said: "The publishers that pioneer and work closely with the pioneers of these new models are likely to make the most of the flip to digital."
Hearst's major glossy title rival, Condé Nast, last week reported a 40% drop in pre-tax profits to £10.4m at its UK division.
Sources: The Independent/LeKiosk
