‘Times’ in €1m profit due to surge in digital revenues

The publisher of the Irish Times has said it made an operating profit of more than €1m last year thanks to a surge in digital revenues.

The result for Irish Times DAC followed an operating loss of €1.1m in 2015.

According to a report on irishtimes.com, overall revenues at the group, which includes the property website Myhome.ie, fell by almost 2% to €82.1m. Advertising revenues were down 3.6% while consumer revenue, including newspaper sales were down 4.3%.

However, digital revenue increased by 12.1% and according to the report “kept pace with the gap created by the decline in circulation revenues”.

The group’s operational costs have reduced by more than 15%. It made a net loss of just over €1.2m, partly due to €1.4m in restructuring costs.

The Irish Times report also pointed out that the company made a €2.6m payment last year to its staff pension scheme “to enhance transfer values following the swapping of its defined benefit scheme for a defined contribution pension arrangement”.

Irish Times managing director Liam Kavanagh was asked about reports that the newspaper is close to a deal to buy the Irish Examiner to which he said “there is a lot of water to flow under that bridge yet”.

He did note that the Irish Examiner’s owner, Landmark Media, is a printing customer of the Irish Times.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed yesterday that private equity company, Key Capital, has put Sunrise Media, the publishers of The Sunday Business Post and owner of the Cork-based printing company Webprint, up for sale.

Key Capital acquired the Sunday Business Post five years ago.

It said it had appointed corporate financiers at BDO to handle the sales process after receiving a takeover approach.

“Key Capital acquired the Sunday Business Post and Webprint at times when the businesses were in financial difficulty. The performance of both businesses has been turned around. We are happy with current trading and are excited about the group’s prospects” said Colin Morgan, the chief executive of Key Capital.

“We have received an approach in relation to Sunrise Media. It is in this context that we have appointed BDO Corporate Finance to examine the strategic options for Sunrise Media, which may include a sale of all or part of the business.”