The Financial Times has been digitally successful thanks to one factor

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The Financial Times had a strong digital performance in 2015, as opposed to its competition (such as The Guardian) that has been struggling.

Financial Times disclosed some details about its solid performance in a post on Wednesday. For starters, digital subscriptions increased by 12% from 2014 to reach 566,000 paid digital subscribers, which now account for 75% of the publication's total paying subscribers.

Digital ad revenue climbed 18% year-over-year, thanks to strong performance by FTAdvisor.com and Financial Advisor IQ.

Finally, the Financial Publishing unit of the company, which tailors its digital and print properties for the finance industry, increased revenue from digital subscriptions by 11%.

Competing publications such as The Guardian have been struggling to monetize their digital businesses while Financial Times has prospered. The Guardian started trimming jobs last week as digital revenue slowed considerably in 2015 (up 20% YoY in July 2015 compared to 24% growth in the year-ago period) despite strong readership. 

The Financial Times' paywall is at least somewhat responsible for this success because it can offset some of the losses that come from consumer behavior such as ad blocking. In the U.K., 22% of adults over the age of 18 now use ad blockers, up from 18% in October 2015, according to a YouGov survery commissioned by IAB U.K.

While the Financial Times can offset some of the ad revenue losses from ad blockers, other publishers that have no paywall or have weak subscription offerings cannot do the same. The Guardian, for instance, does not have a true paywall and offers a membership program instead. The publisher said ad block usage is partially responsible for its slowing digital revenue growth.

But this isn't just happening in the U.K. There are nearly 200 million monthly active users (MAU) of ad-block software globally. That represents a big uptick in ad-block usage from just one year ago.

The software, which blocks ads from appearing on websites, search, and social networks, is also catching on in the U.S.. Ad-block MAU totaled 45 million in the US as of June 2015, increasing nearly 50% from last year, according to PageFair and Adobe.

So what does that mean for publishers? How will they try to reach you as more users install ad-blockers?

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on ad-blocking that looks at ad block usage rates, discusses Apple's  ad block software and how it could make ad blocking more common on mobile, and examines solutions for publishers.

There are several solutions that publishers can use to combat the growing ad-block problem, including education, technical solutions, and micropayments. Which solution publishers should opt for can be determined by their particular ad-block usage rates.

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Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Ad blocking poses a major threat to digital media companies that depend on advertising for revenue. If ad blocking on mobile reaches desktop levels, US digital media companies could lose out on as much as $9.7 billion across digital ad formats next year, according to BI Intelligence estimates based on current usage rates.
• Ad-block usage rates vary greatly depending on content type and audience demographics. Publishers whose audience skews toward young males, such as video game sites, tend to see much higher ad-block usage compared with general news sites.
• Ad blocking may become even more common with the release of Apple's widely used desktop and mobile operating systems later this year. The operating systems will feature a framework that makes it significantly easier for developers to create ad-blocking software, particularly on mobile.
• Ad blockers typically use one of two methods to prevent ads from loading. In most cases, ad blockers prevent the loading of digital ads that are served by a list of known ad servers. Blocked ads typically include display, video, social, and search ad units that appear in web browsers.

In full, the report:

• Outlines ad-block usage trends across content types, geography, and demographic
• Explore the rising threat of mobile ad blocking, including Apple's new content blocking framework
• Examines solutions that publishers can use to combat ad blocking

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of ad-blocking.