Profits at Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell increased by 25% in 2002, according to a report in Sunday’s Observer.
The newspaper claims that accounts to be published this week will show that the media group produced operating profits of £60 million last year, up from £48 million in 2001.
Turnover increased by almost 10%, from £373 million to £405 million in 2002 despite the general fall in newspaper ad revenues. The results are a vindication of Desmond’s cost cutting programme at Express Newspapers which was acquired for £125 million in November 2000 (see Feature: Will Northern & Shell Save Express Newspapers From Declining Circulations?). Though no stranger to controversy, the media baron has succeeded in arresting the decline in circulation at the Daily Express and given a new lease of life to the Daily Star, where sales are up nearly 300,000 since the takeover.
Savings from job cuts have enabled Desmond to introduce a Sunday stablemate for the Daily Star and a weekly celebrity magazine, New!. Northern & Shell also owns the highly successful OK! title and produces adult publications and programming.
Desmond stated last month that he is duty bound to take on the Daily Mail and also plans to challenge Associated Newspapers’ domination of the London market by launching a new evening freesheet in the capital.
