Magazine publisher TI Media said a five per cent drop in revenues last year is down to the continued fall in print circulations and advertising income.
However the Marie Claire and Woman and Home publisher said cost savings had led to a rise in profit before exceptional items.
TI Media’s full-year accounts for 2018, now published on Companies House, show revenues fall from £221m to £209m.
The company said this was driven by “lower print circulation and print advertising revenues”. Revenues fell by 10.5 per cent in 2017.
Revenue downturn was offset by continued cost savings, TI Media has said, which saw operating profit before exceptional items climb to £24.4m, up from £20.4m in 2017.
Exceptional costs included those related to the company’s £14.6m “cost base transformation”, such as redundancy payments and “onerous” contract provisions, plus another £1.2m relating to pension plan amendments and settlements.
TI Media reported an overall operating loss of £3.3m, compared to a loss of £434.5m in 2017. Loss before tax was £3.2m, compared to £13.7m in 2017.
The company, formerly known as Time Inc UK, changed its name in June 2018 to mark its “next chapter” several months after it was bought by private equity firm Epiris Fund II.
In 2018 TI Media closed the free print title NME as well as Soaplife magazine and women’s magazine Look having deemed them to no longer be financially viable in print.
The company also shut down the InStyle UK website less than 18 months after the closure of its print title. The decision was said to be a result of the new ownership.
The number of editorial staff at TI Media fell from 549 in 2017 to 455. Overall wage and salary costs fell from £62.2m to £55.8m.
TI Media chief finance officer Rachel Addison said the company’s aim is to “maintain the development of the company’s business through print, online, mobile, TV and event platforms”.
The company directors believe “the next year will show progress across these markets,” she added.
So far this year, TI Media has closed Now and Marie Claire magazines in print, sold music titles NME and Uncut, and moved the production of Pick Me Up to SWNS news agency to “sustain the immediate future” of the title.
TI Media now publishes about 20 titles including Woman’s Own, Woman’s Weekly, Woman and Home, Cycling Weekly, Chat, Golf Weekly, and TV Times.
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