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Northcliffe Media sees drop in revenue

Northcliffe Media has seen a drop in total revenue of 7pc, the company said today.

And advertising revenues for the same period were 11pc lower than last year with property dropping 36pc in June.

The figures relate to the quarter up to June 30, 2008 – the third quarter of parent company Daily Mail and General Trust’s financial year.

Northcliffe Media publishes over 100 daily and weekly newspapers and their companion websites across the UK.

A company statement said: “All major categories fell with property down 25pc, recruitment down 10pc, retail down by 9pc – adversely affected by the earlier timing of Easter this year – and motors down by 7pc.

“May and June saw a deterioration, particularly in the property and recruitment sectors, with comparable UK advertising revenues down on the prior year by 12pc in May and 16pc in June.

“In June, property revenues were 36pc below the prior year and recruitment revenues were down 17pc.

“Comparable UK circulation revenues for the period were 2pc below last year, excluding titles acquired or closed in the previous financial year.”

Across DMGT as a whole, revenue rose by 5pc on the same period last year and net debt on June 30 fell since the half year from £1,141m to £1,007m.

This reflected continued strong cash flow and disposals totalling £96 million with group net debt remaining comfortably within its existing bank and other facilities, the company said.

DMGT chairman Viscount Rothermere said: “Despite the current weakness in economic conditions, 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 of market-leading operations across both business and consumer products provides considerable resilience and leaves us well positioned to deliver long-term growth.”

Visit the DMGT website to read the full interim statement.