A 40 PER cent cut in profits last year did not deter Deirdre Romanes and her fellow shareholders from taking an €800,000 dividend from her Irish regional newspaper company, Celtic Media Group (CMG) - the same level as in 2006.
Accounts just filed for CMG, the Irish arm of Scottish group Dunfermline Press, show its pretax profit fell to €5.6 million in 2007 from €9.4 million in spite of a 1.8 per cent rise in turnover to €24.1 million.
The 2006 figure was inflated by a €3.6 million gain on asset sales.
The financial statements also show that CMG redeemed 5.36 million preference shares at €1 apiece in 2007, and paid €1.6 million as a premium on those shares.
This left the newspaper publisher, which owns the Westmeath Independent, Westmeath Examiner and Offaly Independent, with a total loss for last year of €1.9 million.
The accounts, which were signed off on July 1st, show that 14 staff were made redundant earlier this year in the Anglo-Celt title in Cavan and in the Meath Chronicle as a result of a "restructuring of operations".
The total net cost of the redundancies to CMG was €1.2 million, indicating a healthy payoff to staff.
Romanes has spent big on the Irish market, splashing out €30 million on the Meath Chronicle and €15 million on the Anglo-Celt.
The directors' report stated that CMG had made "satisfactory progress" on trading last year but issued a note of caution on 2008.
"The directors are also aware of the risks faced by the group such as high cost increases in respect of newsprint and labour, potential migration of advertising revenues, an erosion of circulation revenues and a decline in overall economic activity levels in their main markets."
Ten out of 10 to CMG's directors for their prescience. In spite of the gloom, they said they were "optimistic of consolidating turnover in 2008". In the current climate, that would be some feat.
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