Pearson reaps rewards of cost-cuts

Media giant, Pearson, has reported a 3% rise in full year profit after a round of cost cutting measures.

Pearson owns the Financial Times, Les Echos and Penguin books. It also owns 50% of The Economist and has a 60% stake in the US based Interactive Data Corporation.

Pre-tax profit was £410m (€614.34m) last year, up from £399m (€597.84m) the year before.

The results come after job and other cost cuts to help beat a downturn in advertising revenue.

Chief executive officer Marjorie Scardino said: "In 2004 we expect to make further underlying progress toward our financial goals, and in 2005 we see a very strong performance from our whole company."

The company cited US school publishing and in-house contracts as the key point for further growth.

Revenue at the education unit, Pearson's largest, fell 11% to £2.45bn (€3.67bn) after pressure from the weaker US dollar and lower testing systems sales.