Daily Mail sees ad sales improve

MEDIA group Daily Mail & General Trust said first-half results should show a significant improvement, thanks to improved profitability at its consumer newspapers where advertising was picking up.

The group reported an 8 per cent rise in underlying advertising revenues at its national titles, led by The Daily Mail, for the quarter to end-March so far. Regional ad sales fell 5 per cent.

"Trading has continued to be ahead of our expectations, but we remain cautious about the second half of the year, particularly in the light of political uncertainty in the UK after the general election," Daily Mail said today.

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Cuts in public spending, including public-sector advertising, is widely expected after the May election. The Government is the country's biggest-spending advertiser.

Newspapers in Western Europe and the United States have started to see an improvement as a recession that put some titles out of business begins to ease, although they still face the structural problem of readers and advertisers moving online.

Daily Mail's business-to-business operations, which include large trade shows and B2B media group Euromoney, bring in over 40 per cent of group sales and have helped offset weakness in newspapers.

The company said total revenues for the five months to end-February fell 5 per cent on an underlying basis, with improvements at all its B2B operations excluding events. Overall margins and operating profits continued to improve.