Newsquest, the second largest publisher of regional newspapers in Britain, yesterday said advertising revenues were "still holding up" despite a slide in the performance of US parent Gannett.

Jim Brown, executive chairman of Newsquest, said the foot and mouth epidemic had begun to make an impact on revenues in agricultural and tourist areas but maintained the effect was still small. "We keep looking at the softening market in the US and wondering if it will wash over us but we've had a good first quarter. The recruitment advertising market is still holding up strongly and April is also looking good."

Recruitment advertising was 25% higher for Newsquest during the first quarter while property advertising also showed double-digit growth. The US group said it was "feeling very good about the UK".

Gannett, which owns US newspapers including USA Today and a number of television stations, reported a fall in comparable revenues of 3% in the first quarter and warned the second quarter would also be down on last year.

The group does not break out figures by country but blamed the like-for-like fall in revenues on a slide in the US advertising market. Gannett highlighted a fall in recruitment spend in its domestic newspapers while USA Today had taken a particular hit from the fall in dot.com advertising.

USA Today advertising revenues fell 20% in the first quarter. The newspaper recorded 1,332 advertising pages in the quarter compared with 1,684 in the same period of 2000.

On Monday, the New York Times group reported a 7% drop in advertising revenues for the first quarter to $544m and warned that revenues for the year would be flat at best.

Operating revenues from continuing businesses at Gannett were 19% up at $1.6bn while pretax profits for the first quarter fell 14% to $288m.

Newsquest has been one of the main players in the consolidation of the regional newspaper market in Britain and owns more than 300 titles. It said yesterday Paul Davidson would move up from group managing director to chief executive.