Centaur reports 24% fall in profits

Centaur Media, the publisher of trade magazines including Marketing Week and the Lawyer, has reported a 24% decline in revenues in the second half of 2009 but has moved to boost its dividend as trading conditions improve. The trade magazine publisher reported group revenues of £23.9m for the six-month period, partly reflecting a 50% year-on-year reduction in recruitment ad income, and a loss before tax of £1.7m. However, the company said that it had seen an encouraging "steady moderation" in the rate of decline of revenues across the period with a 15% year-on-year fall in November and December compared to a 28% fall between July and October. Centaur said that the trend toward improved trading conditions has continued in January and February, leading Centaur to make a 20% increase in the interim dividend to 0.6p per share. Excluding the recruitment sector all other ad revenues were down 22% year on year. Web-based advertising fared better with just a 6% year-on-year fall for the period. Year on year the company said that recruitment advertising fell from £5.2m to £2.6m; other advertising dropped from £13.1m to £10.3m; circulation revenue slipped from £2.7m to £2.5m; and online subscriptions dropped from £3.5m to £3.3m. Costs were reduced by £5.7m during the period. Measures included reducing head count by 3%, or 19 staff, from 634 as at 30 June. "While we report a further revenue reduction for the period the trend towards improved trading conditions has continued with positive signs of stabilisation across the group," said Geoff Wilmot, chief executive of Centaur Media. "This stabilisation has continued during January and February 2010 with some areas of the group reporting year-on-year growth in those months." • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".