Centaur’s digital operations now account for more than a third of total revenues, the B2B publisher announced this morning.
An interim management statement showed digital revenue rose from 32 per cent of revenue in the four months to 31 October 2011 to 38 per cent in the last quarter.
During the same period the company’s events business saw its contribution to total revenues increase from 22 per cent to 30 per cent.
Despite growth in those areas today’s figures revealed that underlying revenues dropped 4 per cent year on year in the last quarter.
In its publishing division, Centaur said its marketing, legal and financial titles – including The Lawyer, Money Marketing and Marketing Week – “continue to see weakness in advertising revenues, the HR and engineering communities have reported good rates of underlying growth”.
“This division continues to benefit from the cost savings arising out of the major rationalisation in 2012,” the company said in a statement.
“The outlook across Business Publishing for the seasonally stronger second half of the financial year remains relatively uncertain for the Group's advertising-led products. However, this division is well placed to take advantage of any recovery in Centaur's markets.”
Chief executive Geoff Wilmot said: “We have seen a significant improvement in our revenue profile and cost base at the start of the 2013 financial year, and the business has demonstrated strong momentum in growing its revenues from digital and events.
“Whilst trading conditions remain challenging in some markets, we are well placed to deliver further growth in 2013 and continue to make good progress towards our medium-term targets. We anticipate trading to be in line with our expectations for the current financial year.”
In July this year Centaur made one of the UK's oldest trade magazines, The Engineer, digital-only after 156 years in print.
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