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Daily Mail General Trust CEO outlines ambitions for 2014 as company reports increase in pre-tax profit to £282m

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By Stephen Lepitak, -

January 7, 2014 | 3 min read

The Daily Mail General Trust’s (DMGT) chief executive Martin Morgan has outlined the publishing company’s ambitions including the development of its consumer media business, its B2B companies and a diversification into high growth markets, while reporting an increase in its pre-tax profit for 2013 of £282m.

The publisher of the Daily Mail and the world’s most read newspaper website, Mail Online, has released its financial figures for 2013, while it has announced its plans to develop as ‘a global growth company’.

The strategy outlined included growth of its B2B companies, the development of its consumer media franchise and international diversification into high growth markets.

In order to achieve the three core objectives, five strategic priorities were outlined; fostering innovation to deliver organic growth, maintaining rigorous and active portfolio management, driving international growth, applying state-of-the-art technology and attracting and developing entrepreneurial talent.

Outlining its strategic ambition, Morgan said; “DMGT has evolved from a business focusing on newspaper publishing into one which now creates and distributes media content and specialist business information, in multiple ways, for customers in multiple markets around the world.“

This led to him to outline the company’s three core objectives across its five operating businesses; Risk Management Solutions (RMS), dmg information, dmg events, Euromoney Institutional Investor, (Euromoney) and dmg media.

He continued: “We aim to deliver relevant, reliable and topical information and analysis that is hard to find elsewhere and which is vital to our readers and clients in either their personal or business lives. Our decentralised operating structure ensures that the people making the important decisions are close to their markets and customers. We encourage our companies to be thought leaders and to challenge the status quo. We strive for agility and see change as an opportunity.”

Morgan also highlighted the family ownership of the business, which allowed it to take ‘entrepreneurial risks’.

Despite the rise in operating profit, the publisher did report a decline in revenue over almost £160m last year, at £1,802m, while digital share of revenue grew from 35 per cent to 42 per cent.

"The proportion of revenues from digital is expected to continue growing with the deployment of innovative new products such as RMS(one), Investor Management Network at Euromoney, MailOnline, Wowcher and all the fast growing dmg information businesses," forecast Morgan.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that The Daily Mail’s long-time managing director of its newspaper division, Guy Zitter is to leave after 32 years, in March.

It's understood Zitter has remained non-executive with the company upon his departure at the end of the first quarter in 2014 with Kevin Beatty, CEO of DMG Media set to take over much of his responsibilities.

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