The business of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH developed positively both in the 2020 financial year and in the first few months of the current year. Despite the difficult environment due to the pandemic, last year's revenues of 225.7 million euros exceeded expectations; A consistent and still necessary control of costs also contributed to the good result. Dynamic growth in the digital business was combined with considerable resilience in the traditional print business. Therefore, the FAZ was able to increase the salaries of its employees on July 1, 2021 and also distribute a special corona bonus in December 2020 as in June 2021. In contrast to many other media companies, the FAZ had not registered any short-time work last year.

The progress made in the digital transformation of the business model can be seen, among other things, in the brisk demand for the F + payment service, which offers access to the items behind a payment barrier and the free use of the reading functions in the “FAZ.NET” and “FAZ Der Tag” apps . The number of subscribers with a fixed subscription to F + rose from 34,400 to 62,500 last year. The positive upward trend continued this year: at the end of June 2021 the number of subscribers was 71,700. The digital editions of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung also recorded growth. In total, the FAZ had more than 180,000 digital subscriptions by the middle of the year.

Interest in the “Newsletter for Germany”, which is sent out and revised on working days under the name “Frühdenker” and, with a good 133,000 mailings, is one of the highest-circulation newsletters in Germany, has also developed very well. This newsletter can initially be obtained free of charge for three months; if you want to continue reading it afterwards, you have to take out a digital subscription for FAZ, FAS or F +. This is associated with a departure from the common practice in the media world of making newsletters available free of charge. The other, also revised newsletters come to around 170,000 mailings. The flagship among the twelve podcasts, the “Podcast for Germany”, is enjoying increasing demand. The topic podcasts are also popular, including "Einspruch", "Digitec", "Wissen","Health" and "Finances and Real Estate". The FAZ provides users of smartphones with audio content for the car via Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. After registering in the app and connecting the smartphone to the car, news and FAZ podcasts can be played. In the coming months the FAZ will bring further digital products onto the market.

Last year the digital business contributed 21 percent to the turnover of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH; in the first six months of the current year this proportion rose further to 25 percent. The digital business now accounts for 35 percent of the company's earnings. But the development of traditional business also proves the need of many readers for quality journalism, especially in turbulent times when people are looking for reliable information and for orientation and classification.