The Daily Mail is set to become profitable online next year according to financial statements issued yesterday by its parent company.

Here’s Mark Sweney reporting for guardian.co.uk.

“Display advertising was up 15%, digital advertising up 46%, while classified decreased by 3%. Retail, the largest display category, grew by 19%. The company said that overall revenue from the division’s “pure play digital activities” rose by 16%.”

Don’t be surprised. The Mail Online is a very different product to its print counterpart. Have a look at the site. The content is celeb-driven SEO bait with the goal of driving clicks for advertisers.

Here’s Nick Clark’s analysis writing in the Independent.

“The public’s desire for the online coverage of stories from David Beckham’s wardrobe to Catherine Zeta-Jones’s dress disasters has seen advertisers flock to its site. The growth in online revenues is a welcome development for news services looking to make the internet pay, but some are questioning whether free sites can yet be self-sufficient.”

Its one online news model that is clearly working; the question is whether it’s repeatable.