In a bit of encouraging media news, Daily Mail & General Trust has beaten profit forecasts and the recession to record an overall 23% fall in profit from October 4th 2008.

Its flagship publication, the Daily Mail, has reported the second-largest profit in its history. The Daily Mail represents the biggest business asset of the DMGT.

At Associated Papers, DMGT's UK national newspaper company, revenue fell 11% year on year, with only a 2% drop in circulation. However, ad revenue plummeted 15%, reportedly because of the sale of the London Evening Standard. Digital revenues from the Associated Newspapers' websites rose 11% year on year, accounting for some recouping of losses.

But over at Associated Northcliffe Digital, the regional and digital branch of DMGT, things were a bit worse. Their total revenue was down 22%, and operating profit way down 65%! We all thought local and digital news was where it's at, but apparently not for DMGT.

Underlying ad revenue fell 30% amid professed "unprecedented trading conditions for local newspapers". Circulation revenues decreased 7%, mostly because tight budgets forced homeowners to decrease expendable expenditures. However, Northcliffe said that loss of print circulation was offset by a rise in digital audience across the network by 31%.

The changes at A&N Media, the parent company for both Associated and Northcliffe, can account for some of these better-than-expected numbers.

Across the company (i.e. in both Associated and Northcliffe) there were substantial job cuts and closures. 16% of all A&N staff, around 1,600 people, lost their jobs. Multiple printing plants around the UK were shut, which combined with the job cuts resulted in a £101m restructuring charge.

Management reported that the cuts and closures allowed a 'sharp improvement' in the consumer division's profitability. Overall, DMGT's global figures across its various business information and media businesses showed revenue down 8% and operating profit down 12%.

Martin Morgan, chief executive of DMGT, said that the single most important factor in achieving such profitability was a large-scale cost-cutting drive, mostly in job cuts.

Morgan added that a cover price increase had boosted profits and a "reworking" of marketing and promotional budgets away from activity such as DVD giveaways and into subscription schemes had shown positive results.

Sources: Press Gazette, MediaGuardian