The Irish Times Limited, publisher of The Irish Times, lost €2.8 million before tax in the year to end-December 2002. This compares with a loss of €21.7 million in 2001, when the company took an exceptional charge of €21 million to cover the costs of restructuring the business.

Turnover in the period fell to €94.7 million from €103.9 million, reflecting a decline in advertising revenues due to the economic slowdown. Operating costs were €98 million - down 7.7 per cent on the previous year - resulting in an operating loss of €3.3 million.

Ms Maeve Donovan, managing director of The Irish Times Ltd, said the company had only started to see the benefits of the restructuring in the second half of the year.

Under the reorganisation more than 250 staff left the company and substantial non-payroll savings were achieved.

"The benefits are starting to kick in this year," said Ms Donovan, adding that the company had been trading profitably throughout 2003, and expected to report a profit for the full year.

The priority during 2002 had been to underpin the organisation, she said. "Notwithstanding the decline in advertising revenue, we are now performing very strongly in terms of market share and circulation. The paper is better than it has ever been," she said.

However, the immediate outlook for advertising revenues was poor, with no pick-up expected before the second half of next year.

"There is nothing being said about property that would give you encouragement," she added.

The Irish Times Ltd has redefined its business during the year and now saw itself as both a newspaper publisher and a printing business, centred on the new Citywest print facility, she said. In addition to The Irish Times, the company prints the Mail on Sunday, the Tallaght Echo, the Sunday Star and the Galway Advertiser.

The Irish Times Ltd had also retained the contract to print the Irish Field, which was sold to the Irish Agricultural Trust this year. It was one of a number of business areas exited this year.

The company has also sold the ITELIS database and plans to close its ICPC data processing business.

Contract printing gave the business a counter-balance to the volatility of advertising revenues, and offers opportunities for future growth, said Ms Donovan. "The contracts we have signed up are all extremely positive about the quality of the product and there is still capacity there [Citywest]," she said.

Itronics - which includes the Ireland.com website - halved its losses to €2.8 million last year and is expected to operate close to break-even this year.

The site now had 8,000 subscribers and the number of subscribers who were renewing subscriptions as they fall due was encouraging, said Mr Liam Kavanagh, the Irish Times finance director.

Revenues were also being generated through other services offered on the site, including property and motor advertising.

"There is still a significant amount of opportunity flowing out of Ireland.com. In the long term we are building a series of communities that we can develop as relatively discrete markets," said Ms Donovan.

Although the focus was currently on developing opportunities at Citywest, The Irish Times remained primarily a newspaper publisher and "would have an interest in developing this business, most likely through acquisition," she said.

Ms Donovan said she believed the company was now in a position where it could say with some certainty that there would not have to be any further restructuring to ensure continued profitability. But she warned against complacency, saying it was a very significant factor behind the crisis that engulfed the business in 2001. "We lost sight of the fundamentals," she said.

The company has recently embarked on a  "process" with its group of unions to address a deficit in its pension scheme. The deficit, according to the accounts, stood at €31 million.

Proposals aimed at resolving the problem were due to be agreed by the end of the year.

Ms Donovan stressed that the deficit in the scheme was not a consequence of the voluntary redundancy scheme brought in as part of the restructuring. It reflected the same issues of poor investment returns and new reporting requirements that were being faced by many businesses at present.

The notes to the accounts showed that the company's executive directors shared remuneration of €3.28 million, which represented an increase of €210,610.

There was an average of 11 executive directors during the year.