It used to seem impervious to the effects of the recession, but now DMGT’s business mag, website and events company Euromoney is suffering its full influence and has announced a pre-tax loss of £17.4 million for the 12 months to 30 September — after exceptionals and foreign exchange are stripped out — compared to profits of £37.4 million in 2008. Revenue was down 16 percent at constant exchange rates to £317.6 million, as a three percent subscription revenue lift and growth in online products was unable to offset drops in its events business.
As almost every B2B company admits right now, ad revenue isn’t enough right now to sustain major publishing operations, let alone generate profits — so Euromoney made £152.3 million from online and print subscriptions, 24 percent more than last year but just three percent higher at constant currencies. The company sensibly says it’s been “accelerating the online migration of its print products” as well as “developing new electronic information services” and “eliminating products with a low margin or too high a dependence on advertising.”
Subscriptions now account for 47 percent of revenues compared to 37 percent in 2008; online database and information services contribute 36 percent of total revenues, up from 21 percent a year ago.
CEO Padraic Fallon says he’s confident of looking forward to “opportunities emerging in a changed landscape”, but CFO Colin Jones tells Reuters: “We’re going to struggle to see much growth at all in 2010. Yes, it will turn negative first, probably by the end of this quarter,” It was going so well for Euromoney in Q1, when revenue rose 15 percent, but from January “customers imposed tight cost controls… in response to the global credit crisis” and companies’ budget cuts and headcount reductions are bad news for B2B publishers’ revenues.
— Event delegate revenue was down 29 percent year on year to £6.9 million; advertising shrank 29 percent to £54.8 million in 2009 and sponsorship was down 30 percent at £38.5 million (all at constant currencies).
— The statutory loss of £17.4 million is actually an improvement on the £41.8 million is lost in the first six months of the year and includes restructuring costs of £10.7 and a one-off impairment charge of £23.2 million. Excluding those and including £19.9 million of favourable currency movements, profit was £63 million.

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