Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, this morning posted a slight profit for the six months ended 30 June 2002, with cost management at its business newspapers mitigating against the continued advertising downturn.
Pre-tax profit for the period came in at £26.0 million, up from a loss of £28.0 million for the same period in 2001. Operating profit rose 27% to £76.0 million.
Sales fell by 3.0% during the half year, due almost entirely to lower advertising revenues at the Financial Times Group. The FT Group itself saw revenues decline by 14%, in the face of a ‘deep and prolonged advertising recession.
Business to business, finance and technology were the three most severely-affected advertising categories and account for the majority of the group’s ad revenues. Despite the advertising decline, the business newspapers and online services are showing increases in audience levels.
Losses from the FT Group’s internet enterprises (which include the online businesses of the FT, Les Echos and Expansion as well as its share of FT Deutschland’s FTD.de, economist.com, CBSMarketWatch and Esignal) fell to £24 million, as revenues across these operations were broadly in line with last year and the cost base was significantly reduced.
FT.com continues to grow revenues and reduce costs and remains on track to break even in the fourth quarter of this year. FT.com had 2.8 million unique monthly users in June, up by more than 50% on a year ago.
Pearson makes most of its sales and almost all of its profits in the second half of the year. The company says that it is on course to deliver a significant recovery in earnings for the full year 2002.
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