Pearson, the publisher of the Financial Times, has said that advertising in its flagship newspaper and its financial magazines plunged by about 30 per cent in the first half of this year.

The fall — amounting to about £30 million in lost revenue — meant that operating profits of Pearson’s FT Publishing unit, home to Investors Chronicle, as well as the specialist newspaper, tumbled by 40 per cent to £14 million. Dame Marjorie Scardino, the chief executive of Pearson, said that advertising in the publications was down “in line with the market — between 20 and 40 per cent” with financial and recruitment advertising particularly hard hit by the downturn.

No figure was given for the level of profitability of the Financial Times alone, reflecting a policy introduced a few years ago. Dame Majorie said that to do so was “impossible, because we share costs between the FT, FT.com and FT business [magazines]”.

Dame Marjorie praised Rona Fairhead, chief executive of the FT Group, saying that “given the economic environment, I do believe Rona is doing a great job”. She highlighted efforts to reduce the company’s reliance on cyclical advertising revenues.

Pearson’s advertising turnover was 11 per cent of group sales in the previous downturn, when the dot-com bubble burst, against 3 per cent today, after the sale of the French newspaper Les Echos and acquisition of subscription services such as Mergermarket, a specialist financial newswire.

FT Publishing profits would have fallen more but for price rises for the Financial Times, up to £2 in the UK, from £1.50 a year ago, and an 18 per cent increase in paying online subscribers to 117,000, both of which boosted circulation revenues. “We think there is an increasing appetite to pay for content,” Dame Marjorie said.

Pearson’s group pre-tax profits of £62 million for the half year, and its reiteration of a 57.7p earnings per share target for the full year — despite a 3p hit from adverse currency movements — beat City forecasts. The shares closed up 73p, or 12 per cent, at 679p.

Pearson’s education division, the biggest part of the group, made profits of £49 million, up from £14 million a year earlier, as US states’ reduced textbook spending was offset by the higher education operation’s 26 per cent growth.

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