The Times "is delivering both volume and higher revenue per subscriber", says the News Corp chief executive - and former Times editor - Robert Thomson.
He added: "Digital, which already accounts for nearly one-third of paid sales, has been growing at a double-digit rate."
But he didn't provide any figures when making those statements during a briefing to analysts on News Corp's latest quarterly performance.
Similarly, in referring to the Sun's online subscribers, he spoke about the launch of its tablet app and its integration with sports clips, by observing:
"While it's still early, we are pleased with the progress and the number of Sun+ members has increased remarkedly. We are still monitoring churn and will have formal metrics for you later this month."
So, a promise of numbers to come. Possibly.
Thomson and the company's chief financial officer, Bedi Ajay Singh,
reported that News UK's advertising revenues declined by about 6% (13% in local currency) compared with the previous quarter.
They spoke of weakness in retail, telecom and finance and said "advertising continued to remain challenged through October as a result of general market softness."
There was, however, better news on that front from the Australian division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
The executives said advertising was "on the upswing" in Australia. "The advertising headwinds in Australia have dissipated," said Thomson. Revenues were down 5% year-on-year compared with 16% in its previous quarterly report.
He also said advertising at the company's main American title, the Wall Street Journal, had been "robust in recent weeks, with October showing strong gains versus the previous year."
Even so, advertising at the Journal was down year-on-year during the three-month period that ended on 30 September.
But it wasn't newspapers that drove News Corp's 4% revenue growth to $2.15bn. Thomson - "we are not just a newspaper publisher" - pointed to "considerable strength" at the company's book publisher, HarperCollins, and the online real estate company REA Group.
Revenues at HarperCollins were up 24% to $406m, which were bolstered by the acquisition of the romance publisher Harlequin.
Thomson also highlighted other recent acquisitions, such as the social news service Storify and the online real estate business, Move
Sources: Capital New York/Seeking Alpha/Yahoo/News Corp
