Digital revenue at The Lawyer and New Media Age publisher Centaur grew by £100,000 to £15.6 million in the year to June 30. But company-wide income fell from £66.3 million to £59.9 million.
The group, which has cut significant staff costs, is nevertheless still investing. Chairman Patrick Taylor says “£1.9 million (was) invested in software developments within our digital businesses”, including launching the Equity Capital Market Insight and Pitch Creative products. After buying the Taxbriefs service, Taylor says Centaur invested a total £3.4 million last year.
“investment in our digital businesses included a further implementation, across the Group, of the web platform developments started in the last financial year, including a standardised web recruitment platform, an integrated magazine and web content management system and an enhanced customer database that have collectively provided the Group with a very effective means of securing incremental digital sales as revenues from our core markets continue to recover.”
Centaur says it will extend Pitch Creative, which reviews and rates advertising agencies, in to the digital and design sectors next year.
Centaur’s annual digital EBITDA was £3.5 million — down from £3.6 million.
Pre-tax profit grew from £1.7 million to £2.6 million.