The main entity that sells newspapers and advertising for Independent News and Media (INM) recorded a 7 per cent decline in sales last year to €81 million.
INM, which was bought by Belgian group Mediahuis last July, appears to no longer consolidate all of its activities in one entity, but results filed recently for Independent Newspapers Marketing give a sense of the group's financial performance. The company said its newspaper advertising revenues in a "difficult" market fell 14.6 per cent to just over €26.5 million, while its circulation sales fell 2.5 per cent to €54.4 million, the financial statements show.
The entity recorded an operating profit of €13.3 million, which was up almost a quarter due to “significant cost reduction”, it said. It recorded a bottom line loss of about €670,000 after taking close to €14 million of impairment charges on the value of its assets.
The company noted that during the year it withdrew its Irish newspaper titles, including the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent, from the Audit Bureau of Circulations system for counting newspaper sales, as changes to ABC rules meant INM's titles would not be treated the same in this market as the UK editions of papers here.
Several other INM-related entities have also filed accounts recently. Independent Newspapers (Ireland), which appears to handle production of the papers for the marketing entity, recorded an operating loss of €19.2 million in 2019. Its accounts also suggest that INM spent €24.4 million last year to shut down its Citywest printing plant. Staff numbers in the newspaper production entity fell from 316 to 286.
Legal charges
Its accounts show it also clocked up a further €2 million in legal charges last year as part of the ongoing series of State investigations into corporate governance at the company, which predates the Mediahuis takeover and refers to events that took place when its largest shareholder was Denis O'Brien and its chairman was Leslie Buckley.
One set of accounts also suggests that INM has bought the 49 per cent it didn't already own of events company INM Events, where it had a majority stake. It purchased the remaining shares from businessman Garret Buckley, who continues to own and run an entirely separate business called Eventhaus. The accounts suggest INM took full control of INM Events at about the same time that Mediahuis bought out the parent group.
The various accounts do not outline the performance in 2020 of digital subscriptions – the group launched a pay wall for independent.ie just weeks before the pandemic arrived in spring. However, a note by the directors claims its performance has been “strong” during the crisis.
INM responded to a request for comment on its digital subscriptions performance by saying it had “exceeded expectations” since the pay wall was launched, but it did not reveal specific numbers. INM said 2019 was “a significant year of transition” following the takeover by Mediahuis.
“The results for 2019 for each of our standalone businesses demonstrate the rapid change taking place in our industry as we face the challenges of digital disruption, changing consumer behaviours and economic shifts,” it said.
INM insisted its Belgian owner had “resources at its disposal” to invest in the brands and the development of new revenue streams.
