Daily Mail and General Trust announced brighter figures for its national newspapers, but said that it was too early to call the end of the two-year newspaper advertising recession.

The owner of the Daily Mail reported a 4 per cent rise in advertising revenues for Associated Newspapers, its national division, for the five months to February, compared with the same period a year earlier.

The figures were buoyed by an 8 per cent lift in October, November and December, which fell to a 2 per cent gain in January and February.

Circulation of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday was flat in a falling market, but DMGT, whose chairman is Lord Rothermere, said “visibility on future advertising performance is limited”. That was interpreted as meaning that it did not forecast a sustained advertising recovery.

Northcliffe, the regional press arm, which DMGT has shaken up after failing to sell last year, reported a 3 per cent fall in advertising revenues. Display advertising for Associated, which also includes the London Evening Standard, grew 4 per cent in the period. Classified advertising revenues, on which the Standard is dependent, dropped 8 per cent. Online revenues in the division, boosted by acquisitions, increased 141 per cent.

Peter Williams, DMGT’s finance director, said there was “no doubt” that the flood of freesheets into London, including DMGT’s own London Lite, had hit the Standard“in what is a very tough market”. He declined to give financial figures on how the pair had fared.

The fall in Northcliffe advertising revenues came despite a 57 per cent rise in online sales as growth in property advertising was more than offset by falling recruitment and car advertising. Falling circulation of local newspapers led to cover price revenue falling 2 per cent. It appeared to discount bidding for Trinity Mirror’s Midlands and southern England titles, saying that it is not in “an acquisitive mode” ahead of next week’s bid deadline.

Associated confirmed a partnership with India Today Group for publication of English-language titles in India.

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