Hollinger Sees Losses Increase As Advertising Revenue Falls

Hollinger International, owner of the Daily Telegraph, has announced a net loss for Q3 2001 of $139.6 million or $1.37 per share, compared to a net loss of $3.9 million or a $0.06 per share in 2000.

The UK newspaper division, which publishes the Telegraph, saw Q3 revenues for 2001 of £77.3 million, a decrease of £10.1 million or 11.6% from the 2000 total of £87.4 million. For the nine months to September, revenue was £257.6 million compared to £279.0 million in 2000, a decrease of £21.4 million. This revenue decrease was mainly due to the poor advertising climate.

Ad revenue for the third quarter was £49.5 million compared to £57.6 million in 2000, a decrease of £8.1 million or 14.1% year on year. Display advertising dropped by 18.0% and total classified advertising was down 15.8% when compared with the third quarter of 2000. Recruitment advertising in Q3 dropped by 30.8% although property advertising saw a year on year increase of 10.3%. Within this sector, financial advertising decreased 34.5% year on year.

Newsprint expenses have increased by 4.7% year on year in the UK publishing division although a year on year newsprint price increase of 12% has been partly offset by a decrease in pagination as a result of the diminished advertising volume. Hollinger anticipates that these newsprint price increases should be partially rolled back during the first half of the coming year.

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