DMGT pre-tax profits fall 47%

Daily Mail & General Trust, owner of the Daily Mail, has reported a 47% fall in adjusted pre-tax profits to £77 million for the six months to 29 March.

The publisher also suffered an 85% drop in operating profit at its regional division and a 59% fall across its national newspaper business.

It said that the results were impacted by a non-cash charge of £188 million.

Its regional division, Northcliffe Media, saw operating profits fall 85%, from £40 million to £6 million, with revenue down 23% to £166 million.

Advertising revenues at Northcliffe were down by 31% to £103 million.

National newspaper division Associated Newspapers saw operating profit fall 59% year on year to £18m with revenue down 10% to £455 million.

Underlying ad revenue was down 16% year-on-year at Associated. Ad revenues fell 8% in the first quarter and 23% in the second quarter. However, April and May have seen an “improving trend”, down 15% so far, said DMGT.

Associated Northcliffe Digital made an operating loss of £1.6 million, with revenues from its core classified portals down by 14% to £40 million.