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Mixed fortunes reported by Daily Mail General Trust for third quarter financial figures

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

July 26, 2011 | 3 min read

The Daily Mail General Trust has announced an increase a 2% increase in revenue, while also seeing a reduction to its net debt during Q3 of its financial year, although advertising revenue was down by 7% on the same period last year.

The DMGT, has reported that Q3 until 2 July 2011 saw the company generate revenue of £495m while reducing its debt by £29m to £820m.

The company has said that its main titles, The Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, continued to improve their market share, while there was also ‘good underlying growth’ from its b2b business which generated revenue of £229m, an increase of 8% on the previous year.

It also predicted that the full year financial figures would show ‘modest’ growth, although advertising revenue was down by 7% and circulation revenue was also 3% lower.

The 5p price increase introduced on 18 July for the Daily Mail is also expected to ‘misitgate’ the continued high cost of newsprint and the decline in advertising revenue.

Martin Morgan, chief executive of the DMGT, commented: “Trading in the third quarter was mixed. There was continuing strength in B2B from our international portfolio of market-leading businesses with all divisions performing in line with our expectations. In contract, conditions within our consumer businesses have been tough with advertising revenue weak over the quarter. We still expect to achieve some growth in earnings per share for the full financial year, driven by the continued strength of our B2B operations which reflects the benefits of DMGT’s diversification strategy, despite the volatile and uncertain market conditions faced by the UK consumer business.”

The company also saw growth in its events businesses with underlying revenue growth of 17% to £26m, however the consumer company A&N Media experienced a drop in revenue, with £266m despite headcount being reduced by 8% over the financial year so far.

A&N Media confirmed that it is set to relocate the Surrey Quays printing operation to Essex.

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