MailOnline sees revenue growth of 61% as it claims 117m average unique users during Q1 2013

It has also recorded pre-tax profits for the first six months of the year rise to £137m and operating profit grow to £146m for 2013, with underlying revenue growing by 2 per cent and underlying operating profit up by 7 per cent.

Martin Morgan, CEO of DMGT said that the company had delivered a “good underlying performance” for the first half of the year as a result of its B2B companies and national consumer titles.

Revenue for the newspapers and MailOnline fell by 4 per cent to £306m as a result of an 8 per cent decline in print advertising revenue and a 6 per cent fall in circulation revenue, however revenue growth for MailOnline grew by 61 per cent during the same period as it reached an average of 117 million average unique visitors during the first quarter, a growth of 26 per cent on the previous year’s figure.

The MailOnline has grown its global audience, having invested in its US coverage and sales presence, with home page entries to the site account for 53 per cent of its UK traffic and 22 per cent of its US traffic during the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Metro saw a decline in revenue of 8 per cent in comparison with last year’s figures which saw Olympic themed advertising begin to appear prior to the Games. The Metro website however saw more than half of its global digital audience of 769,000 unique daily visitors come through mobile, with daily mobile visits of nearly 400,000 during March helping result in an increase in digital advertising revenue increase of 26 per cent.

Morgan continued: “As expected, reported operating profit increased despite a decline in reported revenue resulting from recent disposals.

“Our international B2B companies have increased their underlying revenues and profits by 6 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Our UK consumer business, dmg media, continued to experience challenging conditions and underlying revenues were slightly down, although the increase in digital revenues more than offset the decline in print advertising revenues and the business delivered a 7 per cent underlying increase in operating profit.

“We have continued to actively manage our portfolio of businesses and have made several acquisitions and disposals during the period and into the second half, to improve the overall quality and growth prospects of the Group,” he added.

Meanwhile, reported revenue from other dmg media businesses, including Wowcher, the voucher discount deals business, saw a combined revenue decline of 62 per cent during the first quarter following the merger of The Zoopla Property Group with the Digital Property Group.