FT Doubles H1 Profit, 250k iPad Downloads

Financial Times Group’s half-year profit more than doubled from £14 million to £30 million, even though profit grew only nine percent.

Parent Pearson (NYSE: PSO), reporting profit growth across all of its divisions, didn’t say why, but we would think recent cost cuts helped.

— FT digital subs up 27 percent to 149,000, including 1,000+ corporate licenses.

— Registered users up 77 percent to 2.5 million.

— Nearly 250,000 downloads of the free iPad app.

— Digital is now 36 percent of revenue, advertising reliance down to 45 percent of revenue.

Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino :”This is as good a start to our year as I