Business publisher Centaur Media said today that despite recording a 28 per cent year-on-year revenue decline in the last four months it had seen stabilisation in its advertising markets.
The company, which publishes titles including The Lawyer and Marketing Week, reported that average monthly advertising revenues were approximately 10 per cent ahead of the level reported from January to June this year.
Both print and online products were delivering similar levels of recovery, Centaur said today in an interim management statement, with business recording a continuation of the slowing of ad decline it first witnessed in September.
The company said: “Due in part to the relative strength of revenues in the prior year, the group has experienced a 28 per cent year-on year decline in revenues during the four month period to 31 October 2009…
“This represents a slower rate of decline than the 32 per cent reduction experienced in the January to June 2009 period.”
The company said the most recent four month period also includes its seasonally weaker trading months of July and August, adding that stabilisation of ad revenue was more pronounced during the months of September and October. Revenue was broadly inline with expectations, it added.
Centaur said its increased cost cutting had helped it weather the storm of the last few months.
In total group costs in four months to the end of October were 21 per cent lower than in the same period last year.
In addition, the business had a further reduced it headcount by three per cent since the end of June.
In October, media acquisitions firm Critical Information said it retained an interest in buying Centaur despite having an initial proposal rejected by the business publisher which claimed the proposal undervalued the company.
Critical Information ended that interest last week after being set a “put up or shut up” deadline of 7 December.
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