Mail Online’s advertising revenues increased by nearly 50% to £53m in the 11 months to the end of August, offsetting a further decline in print advertising at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.
The Daily Mail website, which had 180 million global monthly unique users in August, up 30% on the same month in 2013, had total ad revenues of £53m, up £17m (49%) year on year. It set a full-year target of £60m.
Print ad revenues were down £10m, a 5% fall, over the same period, to £172m according to the company’s trading update on Wednesday.
Parent company Daily Mail & General Trust said revenues at DMG Media, the umbrella division which houses the Mail business as well as Metro and daily deals service Wowcher, were down 4% over the 11-month period.
Underlying revenues, adjusting for currency fluctuations, disposals and other items, were flat, with a 5% fall in circulation cancelled out by a 5% rise in ad sales.
For the three weeks since 24 August, underlying ad revenues were up 7% on last year.
Overall, DMGT reported a 1% year-on-year rise in revenues for the 11-month period, with a 5% increase on a like-for-like basis.
But delays to DMGT’s flagship risk management software product, part of its business-to-business division, will result in £5m of additional costs.
As a result, the company said adjusted operating profit for Risk Management Solutions in the current financial year would be “at the bottom end of market expectations” of £45m to £50m.
DMGT shares were down 6% at £7.62 at 10am.
Analysts at Jefferies said revenue growth was “broadly in line” with previous updates. “The digital transformation remains robust at DMG,” it said, highlighting the “benefits of a portfolio approach and, for us, perhaps the good outweighs the bad”.
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