Emap upbeat style rejuvenates advertising hopes |
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Thu, 26 May 2005 16:00
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Magazine and radio group, Emap doused all speculation of a slump in the advertising market by announcing that its magazine sales as well as radio business had withstood market adversities and performed fairly well and there were greater hopes for further growth and development in the second quarter.
Alleviating anxiousness amongst investors created after competitors GCap and Chrysalis forecast a bleak advertising future, Emap said that despite a 5 % fall in advertising revenues in April, earnings were expected to scale by above 24% in the forthcoming month of May and show persistent and optimistic performance till June end. This was in contrast to other groups that anticipated dismal results of April to spill their adverse effects in the months of May and June as well.
Emap chief executive, Tom Moloney explained the company’s stronger position saying, “The reason why we are so strong is that we're not so exposed [as other companies] to the vagaries of the market on a month by month basis.”
| Of Emap’s FM radio stations, Kiss and Magic, its Magic FM station had been raking in new listeners. An analyst at Charles Stanley, Paul Bates attributed Emap’s positive stance in the industry today to its Magic “easy-listening” FM station and said, “Magic is just streets ahead of where it was last year.”
Furthermore, Maloney appeared quite confident especially regarding the company’s women’s weekly magazine, Grazia that was introduced in February meant for those women who couldn’t hang on for an entire month to get “their next fix of fashion.” He notified that an added investment of £9m would be injected in Grazier this year.
Emap’s circulation of its weekly titles that furnished celebrity news was also riding high and approaching 1m. Emap’s pre-tax profits of the year ending March fell 22pc and hit £112m. Meanwhile, its turnover declined 2pc. The circulation of its French TV listing magazine had been down in the dumps recently, reporting huge losses. However, Emap clarified that its French business was not up for sale and instead the launch of £9m new French weekly magazine was underway.
Maloney refrained from divulging too many details of the new publication, although he said, "When your business is struggling the first thing that people speculate about is whether it will be disposed of or not. The most definitive statement you can make is: we think France is a good business and we have invested £9m in a new launch there.”
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