DMGT beats a revenues slide to power ahead

Publishing giant Daily Mail & General Trust enjoyed a strong jump in profits last year despite a fall in revenues.

"Our international business-to-business companies have delivered excellent profit growth.

"Our UK consumer businesses have achieved a sharp improvement in profitability reflecting the actions taken to reduce costs and to eliminate loss-making activities, and growth in our national advertising."

Since the year end he said advertising revenues for the national newspapers, which include the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, had risen by 9% while for local newspapers they had declined by 8%.

DMGT, which owns 25% of the Evening Standard, said it was "cautiously optimistic of achieving another year of underlying growth".

Morgan said he was still negotiating the coming year's newsprint contracts but said he expected the bill to be "significantly larger".

He added: "Our future is largely digital."