Mail and Metro publisher the Daily Mail and General Trust has grown its media division revenues by two per cent year-on-year, new financial figures show.
Mail Online continued its upwards trend with underlying revenue growth of 17 per cent year-on-year in the nine months to 30 June 2019.
DMGT said in a financial statement published today that this included increased network licensing revenues for Daily Mail TV in the US.
This is despite a five per cent drop in Mail Online’s average global daily unique browsers to 12.7m, which DMGT put down to “reduced indirect traffic via search and social platforms”.
The company added that the average daily total minutes spent on the website was 142m, down three per cent year-on-year, but said: “Minutes spent by the core direct audience continued to grow, reflecting increased engagement.”
An overall digital revenue growth of 13 per cent offset a 2 per cent decline in print and circulation revenues.
Advertising revenues alone grew by two per cent across the Mail titles with a 10 per cent underlying fall in print advertising more than offset by growth of 13 per cent at Mail Online.
DMGT said the decline in circulation revenues was also partly offset by the cover price increase of the Daily Mail’s weekday editions from 65p to 70p in September last year.
The company’s statement said: “The Mail newspaper titles grew their market shares and we remain confident in the future growth opportunities at Mail Online, driven by increasing engagement with the direct audience.”
The Daily Mail’s market share of UK retail sales averaged 25.4 per cent, up from 24.7 per cent the previous year. The Mail on Sunday’s share grew from 21.8 per cent to 22.7 per cent.
The Daily Mail’s average circulation fell 7 per cent year-on-year to 1,175,653 in June. The Mail on Sunday fell 7 per cent to 986,385 and the free Metro fell 3 per cent to 1,424,232.
DMGT said that as a result of the “strong performance” in the consumer media division, underlying revenues are now expected to be stable in the full-year accounts expected in December.
The company previously predicted an underlying rate of decline in low single digits.
It also expects an adjusted operating profit margin of about ten per cent, an improvement on the high single digits previously suggested.
Overall DMGT group revenue, including the B2B division, saw a ten per cent growth in revenue year-on-year in the nine months to June.
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