Weak ad market hits Independent News Media

13th May 2011 13:05

Independent News Media (INM) has announced a 5.1% year-on-year fall in total revenue in the first 18 weeks of the year, with advertising revenue down by 7.9%.Circulation revenue was also down - by 1.5% on the same period in 2010 - as the firm said it faced erratic conditions in its chief market, Ireland.The figures do not include revenues from the loss-making Independent newspapers, which were bought at the end of April last year by Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev."Advertising conditions still remain challenging and the market in Ireland has yet to stabilise and remains very short-term and erratic," INM said."This has been off-set in part by better advertising conditions in South Africa. However, overall advertising visibility also remains relatively short-term, making forecasting, in Ireland in particular, difficult," it added.The company said the Jobs Initiative announced this week by the Irish Government - lowering VAT on newspapers from July 2011 - should provide some further stimulus for the Irish consumer."We continue to target a year-on-year improvement in group operating profit for the year, coupled with further meaningful deleveraging," the firm said.---mm