Cuts and centralised IT plan drag Daily Mail group into profit

Cost cuts and the new centralised IT division for all Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) groups will enable the publishing company to be profitable this year. In a trading update ahead of year end results on October 4, 2009, DMGT said its flagship newspaper the Daily Mail was suffering from declining revenues and readers, as were its local newspaper groups and online property services. In April DMGT completed its reorganisation of technology services within the company. A&N Media IT Services is a separate technology division which provides IT support and services to the Associated Newspapers titles such as free paper the Metro and tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail. Northcliffe local newspaper, part of the DMGT group also receive IT support from A&N Media IT Services, as do quality newspaper the Independent and London newspaper the Evening Standard. The single division was a significant rationalisation project, with full board support, for DMGT. The division is headed by David Henderson, who had been CIO of the Northcliffe local newspaper group previously. Additional savings have been made this year through the sale of the Evening Standard newspaper and the closure of Teletext, a TV text information service available via ITV. Group revenues for DMGT were down by nine per cent for the 11 months ending August 31, 2009. The Associated Newspapers division that publishes the tabloid Mail reported a drop in advertising revenue of 16 per cent and a two per cent drop in readership to the newspaper. The DMGT business-to-business divisions achieved a two per cent growth in revenues despite falling numbers of readers, advertisers and event attendees. Northcliffe Media reported that its advertising revenues for local newspaper were down 31 per cent from the same period last year and circulation was falling by seven per cent.