LONDON: Pearson, the parent company of the Financial Times has announced that advertising revenues have shown a 5 percent jump. This means that the company's target of getting FT to reach break-even figures by this year-end remains on track.
Pearson's chief executive Dame Marjorie Scardino was optimistic that Pearson would meet its targets, "We still have the majority of the year's trading ahead of us, but the first-half momentum supports our confidence that we will meet our financial goals," she observed. The fact that Pearson operates in the newspapers, educational publishing and books sectors has meant that post-9/11, the group was spared the worst of the media business fall.
The group reported first-half revenue of £1.6 billion in the six months up to June 30 as compared to £1.48 billion at the same time last year. Even though analysts have come down heavily on the group's conservative strategy, Dame Scardino maintained that it was beginning to pay off, "We think this is an indication that our strategy is working. We have been trying to build the biggest businesses in these markets and invest in great content and innovation. And we think that is coming through," she said.
She however conceded that for FT to break-even advertising revenues should stay at the 5 percent mark and not 3 percent as previously anticipated, "We’ve had good growth in recruitment advertising and in some segments such as luxury goods, but technology, business-to-business and mergers and acquisitions have not come back. If anything the second quarter was stronger for us," she commented. The paper reported a loss of £2 million over the first six months of the year as compared to £7 million last year. Dame Marjorie said that despite the much-hyped setbacks, FT was "the only truly global newspaper."
The paper is already on the lookout for a suitable candidate to replace Lord Stevenson who is retiring shortly. Commenting on this issue, Dame Marjorie said, "We have a lot of good candidates. Lots of people want to chair this company and that's very gratifying. We want to find exactly the right person."
Posted
on : Tue, 26 Jul 2005 20:05 GMT | Business News
By : Chris Rowe
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