Advertising revenue at Teletext fell by 20 percent while online ad revenue shot up 78 percent, according to Daily Mail General Trust’s (LSE: DMGT) (DMGT) trading update for the 11 months to August – a mere steer ahead of the release of its full-year results on November 21. The big ad increases at the Associated Northcliffe Digital (AND) division came thanks to acquisitions (the company bought JobsGroup.net, three local newspaper and website publishers from Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI), a Croatian jobs site, a Slovakian car ads site and a villa listings site in the period). Despite a round of job cuts, Teletext has endured a difficult transition to a digital interactive TV text service and has struggled to replicate the success of its holidays service online.
Signs the print ad outlook is looking up – total DMGT ad revenues are up eight percent year-on-year, print ad revenues up two percent, through display is down five percent and, most seriously, classifieds down seven percent. Ad revenue in the regionals division was less than one percent down on last year, which will be heartening, though circulation revenue is down 1.2 percent. “We are continuing to invest heavily in our business information and online activities.” DMGT said it had cut £45 million from its regionals division.