Daily Mail owners DMGT rue lost ad revenue

Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), the owners of an empire that spans events management, business data and, of course, newspapers is suffering from a decline in ad revenue but online income is growing

In a trading update the firm reveals advertising at Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail, has fallen 3% in the six months to the end of March, It appears the trend is worsening, with sales down 2% in the three months to December, and down 5% between January and March.

A very bright spot for Associated though is digital advertising, which has grown 58%, with the Mail Online, which recently became the most widely read English language news website, reporting revenues up 69%.

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Northcliffe Media, which publishes 180 local newspapers, has seen advertising income down 11% in the last six months.

For the group as a whole though underlying revenues will come in 2% up on the prior year with the DMGT information and events businesses both showing growth of 12%.

The Euromoney Institutional Investor offering has seen underlying growth of 5%, Risk Management Solutions saw growth of 7% while Business to Business is up 8%.

DMGT says on an adjusted basis "both operating profits and profit before tax for the first half of the year are expected to be lower than in 2011, although the outlook for the full year remains unchanged".

The market was unimpressed; the shares fell 2.4% at the open.

BS