What The Sun does

The Sun is a British tabloid newspaper published by News Group Newspapers Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of News Corp (News UK). Founded in 1964 as the successor to the Daily Herald, it operates from its headquarters at 1 London Bridge Street, London, with regional editions in Scotland (The Scottish Sun, Edinburgh), Ireland (Irish Sun), and the United States (The US Sun, New York). The company serves a mass-market audience with 22.2 million monthly digital readers and 5.5 million print readers, maintaining its position as Britain's number one newsbrand.

The Sun operates a multi-platform digital news and entertainment business spanning a website (thesun.co.uk), mobile applications, a video platform with original shows and documentaries, and active social media channels. It has expanded into a diversified product ecosystem including the Sun Club membership program, Sun Savers rewards platform, Dream Team fantasy football, Sun Bingo and Sun Vegas gaming, Sun Jobs recruitment, Fabulous e-commerce, and the Dear Deidre advice column. Core technology includes digital publishing infrastructure, video production capabilities, and a newly developing in-house AI agent for programmatic advertising workflows.

The business model combines multiple revenue streams: digital advertising (display, video, programmatic, sponsored content), digital subscriptions (The Sun Digital Newspaper), Sun Club membership with affiliate partner deals, and transactional revenue from betting and gaming (Sun Vegas, Sun Bingo, sports betting). The Sun reported £273 million turnover for the year ending June 29, 2025, alongside a £31 million statutory loss primarily driven by legal costs related to the closure of News of the World. It serves horizontal consumer segments across news, sports, entertainment/celebrity, and finance/betting categories.

Name

The Sun

Legal name

News Group Newspapers Limited

Website

https://thesun.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1964

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

The Sun is Britain's most popular tabloid newspaper, published by News Group Newspapers (a News Corp subsidiary). It serves UK and US readers with breaking news, sport, celebrity, and entertainment content across print, digital, video, mobile apps, and gaming platforms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Digital Advertising: The Sun generates significant advertising revenue through display ads, video ads, and sponsored content on its website and mobile platforms. The company is investing in AI technology to optimize programmatic ad buying.
2. Digital Subscriptions: The Sun offers digital newspaper subscriptions including The Sun Digital Newspaper, providing readers access to premium content across news, sport, showbiz, and other sections.
3. Sun Club Membership: The Sun Club membership program offers exclusive deals, competitions, and offers from partner brands, generating revenue through affiliate relationships and member engagement.
4. Betting and Gaming: The Sun offers betting and gaming services including Sun Vegas, Sun Bingo, and sports betting coverage, capitalizing on its large sports audience.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Sun is a British tabloid newspaper and multi-platform digital news publisher operated by News Group Newspapers Limited. It delivers breaking news, investigative journalism, celebrity coverage, and sports reporting across print, website, mobile applications, video platforms, and subscription services. The publication also operates affiliated verticals including Sun Club membership, gaming platforms (Sun Bingo, Sun Vegas), fantasy sports (Dream Team), savings (Sun Savers), and recruitment (Sun Jobs).

Product overview

The Sun operates as a multi-platform news and entertainment publisher with a diversified product portfolio. The core offering is the The Sun Website delivering news, sport, showbiz, and entertainment content across specialized sections. The company has expanded into digital services including the Sun Club membership program, video content platform featuring original shows and documentaries, fantasy sports (Dream Team), and gaming/betting verticals (Sun Bingo, Sun Vegas, Betting). Supporting services include Sun Jobs recruitment, Sun Savers rewards, Dear Deidre advice column, and The Sun Digital Newspaper. The Sun is also investing in AI-powered programmatic advertising technology and video content expansion as part of its digital transformation strategy.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Sun Vegas: Online casino and betting platform offering casino games, slots, and gambling services
• Sun Bingo
• Sun Savers
• Sun Club
• Dream Team
• Fabulous
• Sun Jobs
• The Sun Digital Newspaper
• Saffie's Smile Awards
• Save Our Sups
• Poppy Appeal Partnership

Products and services

• The Sun Website The main digital news platform delivering news, sport, showbiz, TV, money, travel, health, motors, tech, royals, betting, and lifestyle content across multiple sections.
• Sun Club A membership program offering exclusive content, deals, competitions, and offers including Sun Club Offers & Competitions with holiday deals from £9.50, free tickets, and discounts from partner brands.
• Sun Video Platform A comprehensive video platform featuring original shows and documentaries including Battle Plans Exposed, Royal Exclusive, No Glove Lost, Corner Talk, Showbiz Fix, Inside Stories, and News Documentaries.
• Sun Bingo Online bingo platform branded under The Sun, offering bingo games and promotional offers.
• Sun Vegas Online casino platform offering slot games and promotions with 100% deposit match bonus and free spins for new players.
• Sun Jobs Employment classifieds and job listings platform powered by The Sun.
• Sun Savers Rewards and savings platform offering perks, freebies, and cash-back opportunities from energy suppliers and other partner brands.
• Dream Team Fantasy football platform allowing users to create and manage virtual football teams and compete in leagues.
• The Sun Digital Newspaper Digital edition of The Sun newspaper available for online access and reading on subscription.
• Dear Deidre Long-running advice column featuring personal problem-solving content including relationship advice, with a premium 'Dear Deidre After Dark' section for Sun Club members.

Quantifiable outcome

• 22.2 million monthly readers maintaining position as Britain's number one newsbrand
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• TescocoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2026The Sun partnered with Tesco to run a campaign offering 100 grants of £1,000 to teachers who have gone above and beyond for their students, celebrating National Thank a Teacher Day. Tesco also provides free fruit and vegetables to 500 British schools through its Free Fruit and Veg For Schools programme.
• Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing ArtsminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026The Roussos family, whose daughter Saffie was the youngest victim of the 2017 Manchester Arena terrorist attack, partnered with The Sun and the academy to launch the Saffie Scholarship. The scholarship provides performing arts training at the academy's 200+ UK locations.
• On The BeachminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2026On The Beach provided a £5,000 holiday voucher for the Saffie's Smile Awards drama scholarship competition winner as part of The Sun's campaign honoring Saffie Rose Roussos.
• Royal British LegioncoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025The Sun ran campaigns supporting the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal, with readers helping raise £56.6 million for the 2025 appeal - the highest total since before Covid. The partnership involves recruiting volunteers and selling poppies and wreaths across the UK.
• News CorpcoreOthers · 1 January 2025The Sun is owned by News Group Newspapers, which is part of News Corp. The Sun is building an AI agent for its programmatic business as part of News Corp's broader technology strategy.
• WPPminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 January 2025The Sun is preparing its programmatic advertising infrastructure to work with WPP as part of increased agentic media buying from demand-side partners.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Daily Mail: The Daily Mail is the UK's other mass-market tabloid newspaper and The Sun's closest direct competitor, competing for the same mass-market UK audience across print and digital, with overlapping sports, celebrity, and showbiz coverage as well as comparable digital subscription and advertising models.
• Daily Mirror: The Daily Mirror (Reach plc) is a direct UK tabloid competitor to The Sun, targeting a similar mass-market readership with comparable content verticals (news, sport, showbiz), shared digital subscription strategies, and competing video platforms.
• Metro: Metro is a UK mass-market digital news publisher targeting similar young, urban audiences as The Sun, competing directly for advertising budgets and reader attention across celebrity, entertainment, and viral news verticals.
• The Daily Express: The Daily Express is a UK national tabloid with significant digital reach, competing head-to-head with The Sun for UK news consumers through similar content mix, advertising-supported business model, and mass-market positioning.
• The Daily Star: The Daily Star is a UK tabloid in the same Express Newspapers family, targeting a similar mass-market demographic as The Sun with comparable celebrity, sport, and entertainment content and an overlapping digital ad-supported model.

Broad incumbents

• BBC News: BBC News is the UK's dominant publicly-funded news provider, competing with The Sun for breaking news readership and audience attention at massive scale, while operating without a paywall that anchors The Sun's subscription strategy.
• The Times: The Times is a UK quality newspaper and News Corp sister title, sharing parent company infrastructure with The Sun but targeting a premium subscriber audience, representing both an internal News UK peer and a benchmark for digital subscription conversion.
• The Guardian: The Guardian is a major UK national news publisher with a much broader editorial scope and reader-funded model, competing with The Sun for digital advertising budgets and reader attention despite serving a different (broadsheet) audience demographic.

Emerging players

• The Independent: The Independent is a digital-first UK news publisher that has reinvented itself around advertising and affiliate revenue, offering The Sun a comparable template for digital-only monetization and competing for similar online reader demographics.

Others

• News Corp (News UK segment): News Corp is The Sun's parent company; News UK encompasses The Sun, Times, and Sunday Times. As the ultimate owner, News Corp sets capital allocation, technology investments (e.g., the AI agent initiative), and strategic direction that materially shape The Sun's operating context.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/thesunnewspaper
• YouTubeyoutube.com/thesun
• Facebookfacebook.com/thesun
• Instagraminstagram.com/thesun
• TikToktiktok.com/@thesun
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-sun

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Subsidiaries4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Sun