Profit up 90% at Irish Daily Mail owner

The owner of the Irish Daily Mail and evoke.ie increased profit before tax by 90 per cent to €2.2 million, recently filed accounts show, after it grew turnover and implemented redundancies across its Irish business.

Associated Newspapers (Ireland) Limited improved its turnover by 24 per cent to €20 million in the 12-month period to September 29th, 2019, the company’s most recent financial period. Redundancy costs during the year amounted to €3.25 million.

The group provides editorial, sales and administrative service for the Irish editions of the Mail on Sunday, the Daily Mail, the Mail Online, evoke.ie and extra.ie. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daily Mail and General Trust PLC, which is ultimately owned by media baron Viscount Rothermere. The Irish titles are run by its news division, DMG Media.

The directors attributed the company’s profitability growth to a cost restructuring in addition to the increase in turnover.

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“The risks and uncertainties faced by the business are those typical of the newspaper publication sector. Influences include the level of competitor investment and further decline of print media in favour of digital,” the directors said.

Pandemic

They added that the business has not been “severely affected” by the Covid-19 crisis, thanks to the group’s “varied and diverse revenue streams”.

“The directors have taken measures to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 to ensure that the company is in a good position to get through the pandemic and to be in a position of strength for the opportunities ahead”.

Employee numbers at the newspaper company fell from 147 to 135 within the period while wages and salary costs fell from €9.85 million to €9.38 million.

During the financial year, the company acquired rollercoaster.ie. In July, the group announced it had acquired wedding website onefabday.com.

The company did not pay a dividend to its ultimate owner during the financial year.