Advertising revenues helped offset the decline in newspaper circulation, as the Daily Mail owner refocused attention on the news industry with the purchase of the i, reports the Financial Times.
The parent company of the Daily Mail and its titles cut back on expansion from 40 operating companies to eight, and from ten sectors to five. The company said this led profit before tax to grow 19 percent in the year ending Sep. 2019.
However, this excluded the sale of DMGT’s stake in Euromoney as well as energy information business Genscape.
“The recent acquisition of the ‘i’ demonstrates the opportunities we have to invest in high quality, content-led businesses with a compelling strategic and financial rationale,” said chief executive Paul Zwillenberg.
“We observe that, while buying print newspapers is unfashionable, DMGT is at least selling dear and buying cheap,” analysts at Morgan Stanley concluded.
