'Daily Mail' sees no upturn in advertising sales

London's evening paper, the Evening Standard, will lose more than £10m this year, analysts said, as the newspaper's publisher revealed that recruitment advertising revenues had plunged by 11 per cent.

Daily Mail & General Trust, in a trading update, said that no sustained improvement in advertising revenues had been seen at its national titles, which include the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Evening Standard in its Associated Newspapers division.

"Those businesses within the group that are most dependent on advertising have continued to experience challenging trading conditions, particularly those of Associated which have seen continued weakness in national display advertising revenues and in the London classified market," DMGT said, ahead of full-year results that will be released in November.

Associated's display advertising revenues fell 3.5 per cent for the 11 months to the end of August, with June down 10 per cent but the decline eased in July and August.

Overall classified advertising was up 3.3 per cent for the period, but at the Standard it was down by nearly 10 per cent. This was driven by an 11 per cent deterioration in recruitment ad sales, as a result of the sharp slowdown in the City jobs market. Analysts said this means that the Standard would make a loss of more than £10m this year, as the paper is dependent on the state of the London jobs market.