Revenue at Daily Mail and Metro publisher Associated Newspapers saw underlying growth of 1 per cent to £219m in the three months 1 January 2012 – incuding a 5 per cent rise in circulation revenue.
Figures released this morning by parent company Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT) said that both the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday continued to improve their market share between October to December, with the latter consolidating its position as Britain’s best-selling Sunday newspaper.
Advertising revenue at Associated was down 4 per cent year on year driven largely by an 8 per cent fall in retail and a 12 per cent drop in travel advertising.
While advertising revenue was down 7 per cent, this was partly offset by a 61 per cent rise in digital advertising revenue. DMGT said a modest newsprint price increase is expected on the Mail and MoS in the current financial year.
Mail Online revenue was up 70 per cent year on year, with the company noting that ‘in December, it became the most popular newspaper owned website in the world”, and that in January an online version for the Indian market was launched.
This morning’s statement said that Mai lOnline had 99 million unique browsers in January, according to Omniture, which was up 77 per cent year on year.
Revenue at Associated’s digital-only businesses grew by 8 per cent in total
Total revenue at DMGT’s newspaper division A&N Media – which includes regional newspaper publisher Northcliffe Media – fell 2 per cent to £272m. This includes a 9 per cent drop in revenue at Northcliffe to £53m during the three-month period.
Staffing level across A&N Media was down 2 per cent to 6,710, a reduction of 160.
DMGT said job losses at Northcliffe and Associated Newspapers were offset by recruitment at Mail Online and at its digital recruitment businesses.
Total DMGT group revenue for the first quarter was up 2 per cent to £495 million, with growth of 3 per cent from its business to business operations year on year to £224m.
Chief executive Martin Morgan said: ‘We have made a solid start to the year with trading in the first quarter in line with our expectations.
‘Overall our business to business operations achieved good underlying revenue growth, whilst our consumer media operations were resilient with increased national circulation revenues which, together with a strong digital performance, offset a decline in print advertising revenues.
‘Whilst we acknowledge the continuing external uncertainties, particularly for UK advertising, the outlook for the year remains unchanged.”
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