Homes and Property | Home Page

Zoo launch boosts Emap

Andrew Oxlade|This Is Money
13 April 2012

LADS' magazine Zoo and and celebrity publication Closer continue to be the main revenue drivers for media group Emap. However, sales at its French titles worsened.

Shares in the company, which is due to announce preliminary results on 24 May, fell 22p to 814p in early trading.

In a trading statement today, the company, whose stable includes men's magazines FHM, gossip title Heat, and radio stations Magic and Kiss, said it expects total annual group revenues to edge 2% higher, in line with its expectations. It expects like-for-like sales to rise 1%.

Emap said its UK consumer magazine sales were up 5%. It said many titles enjoyed 'strong growth', led by women's magazine Closer, film review Empire, men's magazine Arena, football title Match and lifestyle magaines Bliss and Yours.

Zoo, a weekly launched in January 2004 aimed at twenty-something men, was not included in the underlying figures, but would add a further 4% to the underlying growth rate, taking it up to 9%. However, the company added that its car and music magazines had been weaker.

The company's French news-stand sales were down 10% after its TV listings magazines there struggled against new competition. Tele Star and Tele Poche were down 19% with advertising revenue adjusting to the lower circulation levels. Though news stand-sales have stabilised, subscriptions are 'coming under slight pressure,' Emap said. Advertising in France also continues to be tough, it added.

Emap was upbeat about its radio division despite the growing threat from a merged Capital and GWR, which now dominates with around 40% of the commercial radio market. Radio revenues outperformed the market in the second half of the year and finished up 2% after strong national advertising in the fourth quarter.

'Forward bookings for analogue and digital radio are resonable at the start of the new financial year, and continuing outperformance of the market is expected on the back of solid audiences, particularly in London and on digital radio,' the company said.

Emap's business trade magazines, including Construction News and Screen International, have seen healthy display advertising, and finished the year with revenues up 8% on an underlying basis. Recruitment advertising finished down 2% for the year after a tougher second half.

The City is currently looking for pre-tax profits for the 12 months to the end of March of between £199m and £204m

MORE ABOUT

Advertising
EMAP
Market Research
Newspapers And Magazines
People Magazine