Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT), the newspaper and information publisher, today reported total advertising revenue at its Associated Newspapers arm fell by 3 per cent in the third quarter as deteriorating trading conditions spread from its regional to national titles.

Advertising revenues at Associated Newspapers, excluding sales from the Daily Mail and Evening Standard websites, fell by 5 per cent in the three months to June 30.

The decline in newspaper advertising revenues reflects the worsening national economic conditions but is by no means as dramatic as the slowdown seen in recent weeks at rival newspaper publisher, Trinity Mirror.

Earlier this month, Trinity Mirror admitted that advertising at the Daily Mirror and its sister titles had collapsed by between 12 per cent and 14 per cent in May and June.

DMGT's regional arm, Northcliffe Media, continues to bear the brunt of plunging trade with advertising revenues 11 per cent lower than the same period last year. All major categories of advertising fell, but property was down by 25 per cent and recruitment by 10 per cent.

The pace of decline accelerated in May and June, according to DMGT's interim management statement, with advertising revenues at the regional titles down by 16 per cent in June.

June saw property revenues fall by 36 per cent compared with the previous year and recruitment revenues fell by 17 per cent.

A further deterioration has occurred in the first three weeks of July, the company said.

DMGT saw healthier trading from its business to business operations, helping group revenues to climb 5 per cent on last year in the third quarter of the year. Revenues at DMG Information - which owns a host of businesses providing specialist data for sectors such as real estate, insurance and financial services - were 6% higher at £78 million, despite a weaker performance for its property information companies Landmark and EDR.

Demand for conferences, seminars and training courses meanwhile lifted Euromoney Institutional Investor’s revenues 13% to £95 million. DMG World Media's revenues for the quarter increased by 43% to £49 million. The underlying increase was 7% after adjusting for non-annual events, timing differences and foreign exchange.

Viscount Rothermere, chairman of DMGT, said "Despite the current weakness in economic conditions, our business to business divisions are continuing to perform well."

"However, our strategy of creating a diversified international portfolio of market-leading operations across both business and consumer products provides considerable resilience and leaves us well positioned to deliver long-term growth," he said.

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