City A.M. moves into profit

City A.M. the free London business newspaper, has broken into profit for the first time.

The company reported a pre-tax profit of £423,000 for the first half of the year in a trading update today (6 October).

City A.M says that advertising revenue was up 39% year on year for the period January to June. Operating profit came in at £546,000, compared to a loss of £302,000 in the first half of 2009.

The newspaper, helmed by managing director Lawson Muncaster and CEO Jens Torpe, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year.

It has outlasted other free newspapers launched in London during the period, including DMGT’s London Lite and News International’s thelondonpaper. Both of these newspapers made huge losses in their three years of publishing.

Torpe says: “After a difficult 18 months for all media we are now back on the growth rate we had before the financial crisis. We are confident we can maintain this positive trend and are therefore increasing he circulation this autumn by adding some 30-40 new stations in t he commuter belt.”

The newspaper linked up with satellite navigation brand Garmin in July for a five week promotion led by a running competition for business workers.

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