B2B publishers set to announce revenue boost for 2010

Business-to-business publishers are preparing to announce healthy growth in revenues over the coming weeks as most of the major publicly quoted media groups hand over their latest results to the City.

Centaur Media kicks off the reporting season with its half-year results this Thursday (February 24). The company, which publishes titles including Marketing Week, Money Marketing, the Lawyer and New Media Age, is expected to report strong revenue growth in the second half of 2010, up about 15 per cent on the same period in 2009, thanks to a resurgence in events income, recruitment and web display advertising.

Next week is the turn of Financial Times owner Pearson, which unveils its full-year 2010 results on February 28. It is likely to announce improvements in advertising and subscription-based revenues, with an increase in group profits for the year of about 20 per cent.

Another B2B publisher, United Business Media, unveils its full-year results on March 1. The group owns CMP Information, which publishes 100 titles including the Publican, Property Week and Farmers Guardian, announced late last year a 10 per cent year-on-year growth in event revenues, a 6 per cent boost in online revenues and data services but a decline in print revenues of about 15 per cent.

Two of the big regional newspaper publishers are also set to announce their full-year results: Trinity Mirror (March 3) and Johnston Press (March 9).

Trinity Mirror warned before Christmas that trading conditions remained volatile, although advertising revenue declines were starting to improve towards the end of the year. It says it is confident that the full-year results will be in line with expectations.

Johnston Press says it expects its performance for the full year will be "satisfactory", with a worse-than-expected decline in total advertising revenues offset by increased cost savings. Property and digital advertising are expected to have grown.

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