British media company Scottish Radio Holdings said today revenues have tailed off due to the effects of war nerves on advertisers.
SRH, which owns Today FM, said group revenues for the six months to end-March, excluding acquisitions and disposals, would rise 4 per cent from the year-ago period.
The firm did not say by how much revenues had grown in the second quarter, but they were up 6 per cent in the first three months of its financial year.
SRH, which has 43 local newspapers in Scotland and Ireland, said the expected 4 per cent rise in overall revenues for the six-month period broke down into a 5 per cent rise in radio revenues and a 3 per cent increase in press revenues.
"There's certainly a nervousness in the marketplace nationally," chief executive Mr Richard Findlay said.
However, he noted a that full advertising recovery was by no means under way before the Iraq war started. He said it was hard to say how the rest of the year would pan out.
"What you've seen, in line with other companies in the sector, is weaker performance in February and March partly because of the timing of Easter," said Simon Lapthorne, an analyst at Old Mutual Securities.