Pearson has indicated that it is defying the advertising and dotcom slump and heading for revenue and operating profit growth for the year ending 31 December. Among its success stories will be the FT’s internet enterprises, which are expected to break even two years ahead of schedule, in 2002. The second half of this year is expected to mark the peak of development costs, with this expenditure falling significantly in 2001.
The website
www.ft.com has grown its popularity during the last year from 1.1m unique monthly users in July to 1.7m during November. FTMarketWatch has been launched in Germany after doing well in the UK and new premium online and wireless services are under development.
In traditional media, some newspapers have felt the squeeze of falling circulation and ad revenues this year. In contrast, Pearson has announced that the Financial Times Group has “generated vigorous advertising revenue growth throughout the year” and in November the FT increased its average daily worldwide sales to 483,000, an 11% increase year on year.
Pearson’s other interests include Pearson Education, which produces textbooks and online programmes, FT Knowledge a corporate training and e-learning company, Penguin books and a stake in RTL Group, formed when Pearson Television merged with CLT-Ufa. Despite the positive noises from the company, shares had fallen 45p to £16.37 by lunchtime today.
