Northcliffe Newspapers increased its operating profit by £0.1m to £46.7m for the six months to April 3, parent company Daily Mail and General Trust has reported.

The group's interim results for its regional titles, which include the Nottingham Evening Post, Bristol Evening Post, Exeter Express & Echo and Aberdeen Evening Express, showed profit had risen slightly on turnover which was unchanged at £257m.

It said the "lack of growth" was due to the absence of a 27th week in 2005 and to the adverse effects on recruitment revenues from Easter falling in March this year.

Excluding the effect of the extra week last year, the group said the regionals' circulation revenues were up by 2.6 per cent, or 0.7 per cent excluding acquisitions.

ABC figures for July to December showed a decline of 3.9 per cent on Northcliffe's titles, partly due to the further reduction in bulk sales to comply with revised ABC rules.

The performance of the evening titles continued to be better than the regional newspaper industry average.

On a 26 week basis, advertising revenues grew by 5.3 per cent (2.6 per cent excluding acquisitions and launches) and by 4.5 per cent (2.4 per cent excluding acquisitions and launches).

On a like-for-like basis, there was a continued strong performance from property, up 16 per cent, but recruitment revenue, which has been in decline since January, dropped two per cent and motors fell by three per cent.

For March and April - combined to eliminate the effect of Easter being in March this year and April last year - advertising revenues were up 1.6 per cent, but recruitment was down by five per cent.

As a whole DMGT reported an adjusted profit before tax of £114.5m for the six months to April 3, an increase of seven per cent compared with the equivalent figure for the previous year.

It said: "The period since the end of March has seen the group's UK newspaper businesses face uncertain advertising markets.

"The picture has been obscured by the timing of Easter and by the general election, but recent assessments of consumer confidence are not encouraging.

"We expect our titles to continue to grow their market share and this, together with their greater colour printing capacity, should enable them to outperform their peers."

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