Daily Mail owner says digital ads revenue offsets decline in print: Full-year revenue up 3 per cent
The Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said preliminary full-year revenue rose three per cent to £1,864m, as digital revenues helped offset declines in print.
DMG Media, the company's media side which includes Metro and MailOnline, said full-year revenue remained unchanged.
Total advertising revenue was up five per cent, and the group said digital advertising revenue offset the decline from print across its media portfolio.
Revenue growth for MailOnline was up 41 per cent and it had 185m monthly unique users in September.
DMGT also said business-to-business (B2B) revenue rose 11 per cent to £1,069m. The company's events and businesses sector offset lower profits at its financial modelling arm RMS.
It also provided an update on risk modelling platform RMS(one), which was delayed at the start of this year, and led to a write-down in September.
The group announced that it had taken a £45m charge in relation to the delay.
Martin Morgan, chief executive, said:
We took a difficult decision in the year to delay the launch of RMS(one), although we are confident that the new programme of staged releases to a small number of clients during 2015, with availability to a broader client base towards the end of the year, will benefit the business in the long-term.
Following the delay, there was an impairment of the RMS(one) asset value in the year. In addition, the increase in RMS's costs, ahead of RMS(one) revenues being generated in 2016, will adversely impact DMGT's profits in 2015.