The publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper and website said it had seen a “marked deterioration” in the British print advertising market that would result in full-year results coming in at the lower end of expectations.

Total underlying advertising revenues across its DMG Media unit were down 6 per cent in the three months to the end of June compared to last year, the company said

Ad revenue at Mail Online, the biggest newspaper website in Britain, attracting 25.3 million users in February according to comScore, grew 7 per cent. That was not nearly enough to compensate for a 13 per cent slump at its print titles.

Shares in DMGT fell 8.5 per cent to a four-month low of 850.5 pence at 07.18 GMT after it joined rivals Trinity Mirror and Johnston Press in warning of weaker advertising markets.

Trinity Mirror, the publisher of the Daily Mirror newspaper, said in June its print ad revenue fell almost 19 per cent in the first six months of the year. Regional newspaper group Johnston said it had been hit by weaker advertising, particularly around national elections in May.

The weak advertising result dragged underlying revenue at DMGT down 1 percent in the quarter, wiping out earlier gains to give a flat year-to-date performance.

Analysts at Numis trimmed their forecast for 2015 pretax profit by about 2 percent to £275.6 million (€393.6 million), reflecting the tougher trading environment, and its downgrade to Euromoney, majority owned by DMGT, on Wednesday.

The market expects Daily Mail & General Trust to report revenues between £1.82 billion and £1.93 billion and adjusted pretax profit between £275 million and £292 million, according to the company.

Reuters