Daily Mail owner hit by ad revenue blow as print readership stalls

What’s the deal

• Print advertising across the group slumped a calamitous 38% over the three months to 31 December, led by a collapse in readership for the Metro newspaper as commuters stay at home.

• Grim results across the consumer media sector saw total underlying revenue fall 13%, driven south by red ink across the board including a 16% decline in underlying advertising revenues.

• The scale of these losses eclipsed an 8% uptick in digital advertising, which was in no way sufficient to compensate for losses incurred elsewhere, despite a strong performance from B2B brand UK Property Information which saw revenue rise by 18%.

• Seeking to put a positive spin on the numbers, executive chairman Lord Rothermere blamed the outsize underperformance of the Metro for skewing the figures as a whole.

• Rothermere points to the fact that were The Metro to be excluded, DGMT’s advertising performance would have been ”in line” with the year before on a like-for-like basis.

• Looking forward, DGMT’s crystal ball remains cloudy with the reverberations of the pandemic making the short-term outlook for its property, media and events businesses uncertain at best.

How are UK newspapers generally faring in the pandemic?

• DMGT’s disappointing results deflate hopes that the publishing sector might be poised to mount a comeback after rival Reach – parent company of the Daily Mirror and Daily Express – predicted its operating profit would come in ahead of expectations.

• Pandemic disruptions have also left their mark on Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which also saw revenues and advertising decline despite a flurry of new online subscribers and an improved digital performance.

• The plight of newspaper publishers was the subject of a recent opinion piece by Newsworks managing director Jo Allan, who called on advertisers to play a more active role in supporting news brands at a time of transition.

• Allan said: ”The advent of the pandemic has accelerated the ongoing transition of news brands into diverse revenue streams such as audio, affiliates, e-commerce and subscriptions, as well as creating agile new methods of distribution.”