Trading Update

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Tuesday 22 March 2005

Summary
This statement updates investors on the Group's progress in the current year, ahead of its half year end on 3rd April 2005. The Group expects a satisfactory underlying half-year trading performance and, despite negative cyclical factors, one in line with that of the prior half year. At the trading level, there has been continued growth, particularly within our business to business division.

For the newspaper divisions, the reporting period will include one fewer trading week than the first half of last year and timing issues also affect the results from our events businesses, with a number of important shows including Index and Vinisud not occurring in this half year .

Outlook
The Group's businesses remain in good shape. As regards the full financial year, we continue to expect a satisfactory result, with good organic growth and a useful contribution from recent acquisitions.

National Newspapers
The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday have again achieved solid circulation performances in an extremely competitive national newspaper market. The six month ABC average circulation of the Daily Mail to February 2005 was down 2.1% on the previous year, in a market which declined overall by 3.2%. February 2005 showed an increase on February 2004. The Mail on Sunday's six month ABC average circulation was up 1.8% against a market decline of 2.7%. The paid-for circulation of the Evening Standard fell by 10% year on year, but since the launch of the Lite edition in December, the last two months have shown that the aggregate of the combined editions is 4% higher than the number of copies sold last year. Metro, assisted by Northcliffe Newspapers' launch of two new franchises in June 2004, increased its distribution to just over one million.

Associated's display advertising revenues, adjusted for the one week's less trading this half year, have increased by 6.5% for the five months to February 2005. By category, retail has remained strong and travel has shown good growth, but both finance and motors have declined. By title, display advertising at Metro is up 28%, the Evening Standard up 9%, the Daily Mail up 2.6% and The Mail on Sunday up 4.8%.

The last three months, following the introduction of increased colour and pagination, have seen a marked increase in the migration of advertising from mono to colour. Colour advertising revenues in that period are up some 23% year on year with no reduction in yields.

Classified advertising revenues were up by 14% to the end of February, but down 2% on a comparable basis, excluding the extra week and the revenues of recent additions, Jobsite and Find a Property, which are both performing well.

Regional Newspapers
Northcliffe has continued to perform well. Circulation revenues for the five months to February 2005 were 3.8% ahead of the same period last year, or 1.8% excluding acquisitions and launches. ABC figures for the July to December 2004 period show a decline of 3.9% on its titles, partly attributable to the further reduction in bulk sales to comply with revised ABC rules. The performance of the evening titles continues to be better than the regional newspaper industry average.

Northcliffe's advertising revenues for the five months to February 2005 were 6.8% ahead of the comparable period last year. On a like-for-like basis, UK advertising revenues have increased by 3.8%. Property (up 17%) has continued to grow strongly, but growth in recruitment has tailed off since January.

Information publishing
DMG Information's business to business division has again generated double digit revenue growth on an underlying basis both at the property companies and at Risk Management Solutions. The performances of our recent acquisitions, Trepp and Lewtan, are ahead of expectations. Within the careers division, Hobsons' bookings are running ahead of the comparable period last year, whilst Study Group's revenues are at a similar level to last year.

Exhibitions
DMG World Media continues to perform well, although some of its markets have more recently seen tougher conditions. Particularly good performances were achieved by its Big 5 trade exhibition in Dubai, Surf Expo in Florida, and by the premier US arts and antiques fairs, a welcome recovery for the latter shows. Within the home interest sector, the Fall season of shows in North America went well.

Broadcasting
At DMG Broadcasting, the continuing shift to late booking, together with increased competition for holiday advertising, mean that Teletext's revenues for the traditionally weaker first half year are expected to fall by around 15% against last year. Its recently announced ten-year contract with ITV on digital will launch early in the second half of the year.

DMG Radio continues to see strong growth in revenues from its radio network, particularly in Sydney. The most recent independent listener survey showed Nova 969 in Sydney remaining the number one FM station, and Nova 91.9 in Adelaide, our most recent launch, performing strongly. Our other two Nova stations remain number one in their core demographic.

Exceptional items
DMGT expects to report modest net exceptional gains at its half year, arising from the sale of non-core businesses and assets, including listed investments.

Acquisitions update
Northcliffe, Euromoney Institutional Investor, DMG Information and DMG World Media have completed on a number of small acquisitions in recent months that have not been announced previously by the Group. These acquisitions include: City Expres in Bratislava, a weekly free distribution advertising-only publication, which builds on our recent acquisition of Avizo in Slovakia; CEIC, one of the leading providers of time-series macro-economic data covering Asia; certain assets from Space Imaging to add analytical solutions capabilities to Sanborn's mapping business; and the St Petersburg and Tampa Home & Garden Shows
in Florida. The total cost of these acquisitions was around £8 million.

*Enquiries: *
Peter Williams, Finance Director, DMGT 020-7938 6631
Nicholas Jennings, Company Secretary, DMGT 020-7938 6625
Andrew Honnor, Tulchan Communications 020 7353 4200

Daily Mail and General Trust plc
Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street,
London, W8 5TT

Tel 020 7938 6000
Fax 020 7938 4626

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