DMGT revenues held up by B2B division

Daily Mail & General Trust has reported a 5% increase in third quarter revenue compared to the same period last year. A strong performance by its business to business division has offset weak advertising revenue from its newspaper group.

It says that total revenue for Associated Newspapers, which includes the Daily Mail and Evening Standard, increased by 0.4% to £243m but total advertising revenue fell by 3% over the quarter. Advertising revenue for the newspaper division excluding digital advertising sales dipped to 5%.

Northcliffe Media, its regional newspaper division, saw an 11% drop in total revenue compared to the same period last year. This is attributed to a 25% drop in property advertising, a 10% drop in recruitment and a 9% decrease in retail advertising.

Meanwhile, the business to business division DMG Information saw a 6% increase in revenue for the quarter to £78m. It says it expects to achieve year on year profit growth of 5% for the full year. It also saw strong growth at Euromoney Institutional Investor with a 13% increase in revenue to £95m. DMG World Media, which includes events such as the Global Petroleum Show, saw a 43% increase in revenue to £49m.

DMGT chairman, Viscount Rothermere, says: “Despite the current weakness in economic divisions, our business to business divisions are continuing to perform well. Inevitably, the well-publicised deterioration in the UK economy since we last reported in May is having an impact on our newspaper businesses there. However, our strategy of creating a diversified international portfolio across both business and consumer products provides considerable resilience.”