National World chairman David Montgomery has said its 9% revenue growth in 2024 was “propelled” by video advertising as well as acquisitions.
Revenue at the publisher of the Yorkshire Post, The Scotsman and a roster of other regional newspapers, city websites and National World website grew to £96m in the year to 28 December 2024.
Print continues to make up 72% of revenue while digital is 20% (other revenue streams include events and BBC local democracy reporter deals for 34 journalists).
Profit before tax grew by 16% to £11.1m and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) on continuing operations was up 19% to £11.2m.
The results also revealed that National World has said its £1.1m investment in start-up The News Movement is now worth nothing, putting it as an impairment to nil value. Bosses at The News Movement told Press Gazette last year they expected to reach profitability in 2025.
The results look set to be the last for National World before its takeover by Irish marketing business and local publisher Media Concierge, one of the company’s original backers before their relationship turned sour last year.
The acquisition has been cleared by shareholders and is currently pending competition checks and a court hearing.
However, the results nevertheless contain indicators of Montgomery and his management team’s future plans for National World and where they see its potential.
The report noted that National World had a “strong balance sheet with financial flexibility” with a cash balance of £10.9m at 28 December, up from £10.7m a year earlier. Dividends of £2m were paid in the year. It said this was “despite £4.3m of cash withheld by Media Concierge”.
David Montgomery outlines National World revenue and profit growth
Montgomery said: “National World has again increased profits while widening its footprint and its content offering across all platforms.
“Acquisitions and launches, including the development of TV, events and social media are driving a new sustainable model for local and national publishing.
“Revenue growth, particularly in digital, has been propelled by local video advertising, across our new World online metropolitan brands and nationalworld.com.”
Digital revenue (including programmatic, digital-led direct sales, subscriptions, syndication and £2.7m from Google and Meta although the latter agreement ended in January 2024) was up 7% to £19.6m.
Video revenue was up 12% to £1.7m. More than three-quarters (78%) of National World online articles included video content in 2024 having got more than 250 journalists trained and kitted to produce video and entered the TV market with its channel Shots!.
As a result average viewing time per video was up 7% and, due also to yield improvements, its annual video revenue growth was 12%.
Digital advertising revenue was up 4% attributed to acquisitions. Average monthly page views were more than 134 million in 2024, down 3% year on year (or 11% excluding acquisitions) but flat in Q4.
Digital subscribers were up by 17%, with digital subscriptions revenues up 13% compared to 2023.
The company said there was a “rise in the number of high value annual packages” sold at The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post in the last part of the year driven by their bundle offering with The New York Times and “a trend of improving engagement on our digital apps”.
It also said its first paid newsletters “gained traction” and that new subscriptions were launched on former Midland News Association (MNA) brands in late 2023 with ad-light digital subscriptions being added to its weekly portfolio.
Print revenue was up by 9% overall, with advertising revenue up 12% due to acquisitions and national advertising contract changes, and circulation up 7% year on year (but down 7% excluding acquisitions). The circulation revenue includes £3.1m of print subscribers, up 3%.
Newsprint costs were down £0.8m due to newsprint prices falling by 20%. Without titles acquired in 2023, these costs would have fallen by £1.2m, or 31%. However production costs were up 12% due to costs from newly-acquired titles.
Events were up 37% to £5.6m, now making up more than 5% of the total, following the first full-year of owning Insider Events and the introduction of events linked to the MNA brands leading to a total of 150 events held. This is expected to grow further following the recent acquisition of The Business Magazine.
Montgomery added: “Automation through AI and other efficiencies in the production areas have released resources to focus on specialised monetisable content, particularly in sport, business and lifestyle.”
Some 1,000 newspaper pages a week are said to be created using AI production and Montgomery said this is planned to expand to more than 20% of all editorial output.
National World said its workforce had reduced by 20% over four years “as automation has removed and streamlined many legacy processes”.
He continued: “We continue to progress our commitment to building the company through consolidation and innovation while constantly increasing productivity and nurturing talent.
“These good 2024 results have been achieved despite the combined headwinds of macroeconomic challenge and non-trading distractions.”
Three acquisitions costing a total of £0.9m added what is expected to amount to £2m in revenues and £0.2m in EBITDA in 2025: Athletics Weekly, Serious About Rugby League and The Business Magazine Group.
In March last year National World sold software as a service company Press Computer Systems six months after acquiring it, with a £1m gain recorded and £3.5m received in the form of service credits to be used against a five-year software agreement with new owner Naviga.
As well as AI, Montgomery said an “ongoing reorganisation” is also being driven by a “gradual switch from geographical divisions to vertical units based on content and platform”, a focus on growth areas of events, sports, business information, TV and video, pivoting talent towards specialist original content and the “rapid development of a social media platform to win back the local marketplace”.
Incremental cost savings of £0.8m were made in the year with restructuring costs of £1.8m. As a result £2.9m of annual cost savings are expected.
National World had 1,101 employees as of 28 December 2024, down from 1,226 a year earlier.
In the past two years 300 employees have joined from its 11 acquisitions.
A spokesperson said: “National World has made tremendous progress since inception in terms of profitability, digital transformation and content creation.
“These numbers show the ongoing potential for this group under an ambitious management team from a business assembled at a cost of £24m.”
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