Independent News & Media's first interim management statement since ex-Tesco executive Robert Pitt took up the chief executive reins contained some good news and some bad news, neither of which can be said to be unexpected.
The bad news is that total circulation revenues are now declining by 2.7 per cent in the year-to-date, a slight acceleration on the 2.4 per cent drop recorded in the first half.
Total advertising revenues are still running down for the year, albeit only by 0.4 per cent, and overall group revenues are 2.2 per cent lower.
The good news is that online revenues have climbed 33 per cent in the year to date, ahead of analysts' forecasts, with Davy Research indicating yesterday that it planned to make an upward adjustment to its online revenue projections.
To sum up the statement: offline is down, online is up.
Although its daily deals website GrabOne is also growing, INM said the online performance was principally due to growth in its digital publishing operations. The group's figures for circulation and online revenue appear to confirm that the trend for readers to eschew print in favour of digital media continues, and that the "transition" phase for newspaper groups is far from over.
What INM needs now is for the advertising revenues to follow those eyeballs.
Despite a “substantial” investment in digital activities, the group has managed to reduce its operating costs by 2.9 per cent for the year to date, it said.
Again, this is either good or bad news depending on your perspective. For shareholders, it indicates that management, even before the arrival of its supermarket boss, has been disciplined.
For INM employees and former employees, however, this seemingly innocuous number is the end result of a series of unpleasant cutbacks, job losses and “efficiencies”.
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