DMGT properties see revenues slide; Metro building online money-makers

Posted by Savita Sauvin on February 10, 2010 at 3:53 PM

UK national newspaper business Associated Newspapers Ltd. this morning reported a 12 percent fall in overall revenue in the last three months of 2009 to £208 million for the period. Meanwhile, Associated's owner, Daily Mail and General Trust, recorded a year-on-year revenue decline of 15 percent in the last three months of 2009, to £482m for the period, Press Gazette reported.

Meanwhile, the company is looking to build new revenue streams, as evidenced by free daily Metro's plans to launch new revenue streams online, MediaWeek reported. Metro is looking to overhaul the commercial aspect of the site, while also launching new audio and video tools. The reworked site is expected to go live from its test phase next month.

Throughout the year, Metro is also planning to add many new revenue streams, such as entertainment-focused content, similar to its current gambling channel. However, no further details were provided, according to MediaWeek. In one of the first steps toward creating more online revenue, however, the editorial and product team will "have a more commercial focus" and report to the digital director instead of the newspaper's editor.

To present advertisers with the value of its audience, Metro has done audience research and is now calling its online audience "City Clickers," a group of 15 million heavy Internet users, ages 18 to 44.

At Associated Newspapers, which houses Metro and the Daily Mail, advertising revenue in the last quarter of 2009 fell by 8 percent, display was down 8 percent and classified was down 10 percent. However, digital was up by 4 percent, according to Press Gazette.

At DMGT, total ad revenues from the company's newspaper operations was down by 11 percent, while Web site revenues were down by 8 percent. Overall digital revenue from Associated Newspapers was down 13 percent, Express UK reported.

DMGT has lately been cutting costs and restructuring its portfolio by reducing staff numbers, selling loss-making assets like the London Evening Standard, and closing the free sheet London Lite and the Teletext TV information service, the Financial Times reported.

So far, national titles have been helped in January by supermaket advertising, but the ad business in regional newspapers is less steady, "with recruitment rather weak," Martin Morgan, chief executive of DMGT told the FT. Metro, which is distributed in London, did well in January thanks to mobile phone companies launching ads to promote new devices.