The publisher of the Daily Mail has warned "the challenging market conditions in the UK print advertising market" will have an "adverse" impact on the next financial year, after reporting a 4 per cent fall in pre-tax profits this year to £288 million.
Total advertising revenues for the Mail businesses, which includes the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, were £242 million in the year to September, a decline of £10 million or 4 per cent on the previous 12 months.
The increase of 18 per cent (£11 million) in MailOnline's advertising revenues was exceeded by the decline of 11 per cent (£21 million) in print advertising revenues.
This year’s financial results, outlined in today's preliminary full-year report by parent company Daily Mail & General Trust, contrast with a year ago when online growth offset print decline at the Mail titles.
MailOnline’s ad growth has slowed markedly. Its annual revenues rose by £11 million or 18 per cent to £73 million. A year ago, MailOnline's revenue had jumped by 41 per cent to £62 million.
Print ad sales fell by £21 million this year.
Revenue at Metro, the freesheet which is run separately from the Mail tites, was £75 million, up 1 per cent, which was described as "a particularly strong performance in the context of a weak UK print advertising market".
DMGT pointed out its consumer arm had seen underlying profit increase 15 per cent and margin rise to 13 per cent thanks to cost efficencies.
The B2B arm, which includes Euromoney, saw underlying revenue increase by 3 per cent to £1.12 billion, while underlying profit was down by 12 per cent to £206 million.
Since the start of the new financial year in October, the Mail titles have had "stable underlying advertising revenues, with digital growth offsetting the decline in print advertising".
Martin Morgan, the chief executive at DMGT, said: "The challenging market conditions in the UK print advertising market and those facing Euromoney in the investment banking and commodities sectors are likely to have an adverse impact on full-year 2016 results, as will the disposal of DMGT’s stake in Local World, which completed in November 2015.
"The Board remains confident, however, that the Group has a portfolio of innovative and exciting businesses and is well positioned to deliver good long-term growth."