Archant shot down by fall in advertising
NORWICH-based publisher Archant made a pre-tax loss of £25.2m last year as the savage pullback in advertising spend hit its regional newspaper and magazine businesses.
The company, which owns titles such as the Eastern Daily Press and the Islington Gazette, said the collapse in the housing market particularly affected property classifieds, which are usually lucrative.
Group turnover was down 9.6 per cent at £175.1m, while newspaper revenue fell 12.3 per cent and magazine and contract publishing revenue fell 2.9 per cent.
Property advertising in Archant’s regional newspapers was down 31 per cent. Advertising revenues were down 13.5 per cent overall.
The company reacted by cutting staffing levels by 10 per cent in its print division. It warned more redundancies were on the cards.
One bright spot was Archant’s website operations, which include jobs24 and homes24, which almost doubled their unique visitor numbers over the year to 1.8m hits a month.
Chief executive Adrian Jeakings, speaking at the end of 2008, said: “We have… initiated further cost saving actions and accelerated those already underway. These actions will inevitably reduce our workforce.”