US based international media group, Pearson, announced ahead of the Annual General Meeting today, that it is currently on target to hit full-year profit forecasts as advertising revenues for flagship newspaper, The Financial Times, recover.
Advertising revenues for the newspaper are now level, after being down 4% at the start of March 2004 says Pearson, although these remain volatile from week to week, the overall trend continues to improve.
The forecast comes in light of recent cost cutting taken at the newspaper business, as well as another strong performance expected from the interactive data arm, IDC.
Following the impact of the Madrid bombings in March, Recoletos, the 79% owned Spanish media group saw advertising revenues pick-up during April. A launch of Spanish-language newspapers has just been announced for the US.
Dennis Stevenson, chairman said: “We continue to expect underlying progress in 2004 and, looking further ahead, the trading prospects for Pearson are better than at any time in the past three years.”
Pearson’s, US higher education business is expected to grow by 4-6% this year and to out-perform the wider market.
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