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November 23, 2011updated 14 Sep 2012 4:59pm

Daily Mail and Metro website revenue grows to £19m

By Andrew Pugh

Revenue at the Daily Mail General Trust's Mail Online rose by 65 per cent in the financial year to 3 October, the company announced today.

DMGT noted that global traffic reached 4.1 million daily average unique visitors in September – up 52 per cent on last year and making Mail Online "the world's second largest English language online newspaper website".

In the same month it had 1.7 million unique visitors a day in the UK, which was up 51 per cent year on year and gives Mail Online a 37 per cent market share, the company claimed.

Reporting its full-year results this morning, DMGT announced total group revenue was up 1 per cent to £1.99bn and operating profit was down 5 per cent to £286m.

Ad revenue at its national newspaper division Associated Newspapers fell 2 per cent to £340m, with a strong performance by Metro and Mail Online offset by a fall in display revenues at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.

Underlying print advertising revenue fell 4 per cent but digital revenue from its national newspaper websites grew 56 per cent to £19m.

Circulation revenues fell 2 per cent to £343m, which the company said was due partly to the temporary price discounting by the Mail on Sunday following the closure of The News of the World in July 2011.

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This was offset by the weekday cover price increase of 5p to 55p on the Daily Mail. Circulation revenue at the Daily Mail fell 0.8 per cent while The Mail on Sunday fell 5.7 per cent.

Metro had a stronger year, growing revenue by 14 per cent, or £10m.

Chief executive Martin Morgan said: 'DMGT has delivered a solid set of results. Our international B2B companies have increased their revenues and profits by 10 per cent and 13 per cent on an underlying basis respectively.

'Our UK consumer businesses have been impacted by the weak advertising environment, particularly in the third quarter, and higher newsprint costs resulting in profits down 20 per cent for the year.

"Notwithstanding the challenging trading conditions, the underlying revenues of Associated Newspapers were unchanged."

He added: 'Furthermore, Mail Online is now a global name in news and on course to become the world's biggest English language newspaper website.

'Whilst first quarter trading to date has been reasonable, we remain cautious about the medium term outlook, given continuing external uncertainties, particularly for UK advertising.

'Our strategy remains focused on innovation-led growth, talent development and improved operating effectiveness. We are a more focused and financially stronger Group today, which makes us confident that we can make real progress in 2012."

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