Regional newspaper publisher Archant has announced increased operating profits of £29.4m.

The group's preliminary results showed that, before exceptional items, operating profit for 2003 had gone up by 6.1 per cent on the previous year, with profit before tax up 13.9 per cent to £27.8m on turnover up eight per cent at £158m.

The improvement was largely due to a strong performance from Archant's magazine activities, which include the Archant Life portfolio and the Archant Specialist magazine stable, together with a number of the group's innovations moving into profit.

Chairman Richard Jewson said the Archant board continued to look for further acquisitions.

He said: "The economic outlook for 2004 is still uncertain. However, overall, we expect moderate growth in newspapers and a further improvement in magazine profitability."

Archant publishes four daily regional newspapers, including the Eastern Daily Press and the East Anglian Daily Times, and more than 80 weekly newspapers with a combined circulation of around three miilion copies. It also publishes around 60 magazines and 40 websites.

It bought 27 weekly newspapers in and around London from Independent News and Media in two separate deals at the end of last year, and these have had no material effect on the results.

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