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Country Life and NME publisher IPC Media has bucked the recession as annual profits held steady at £65.1 million despite falling advertising.
Accounts filed at Companies House showed that IPC, Britain's biggest consumer magazines publisher, slightly increased profits in the year to 31 December, up £200,000. Turnover fell 2.8% to £393.5 million.
IPC said cost-cutting helped maintain profits in 2008 despite “adverse economic conditions which have reduced demand for advertising space”. The advertising market has worsened sharply across the industry in 2009.
Some US analysts have called for Time Warner to sell IPC, which has around 75 titles, because the publisher lacks a significant European presence and has relatively few synergies with its American parent Time Inc.
While Time Warner has dismissed any talk of a sale, IPC's ability to generate solid profits could make it attractive to buyers. Accounts show more than 80% of sales are within the UK. Meanwhile, The National Magazine Company, publisher of Harper's Bazaar and Esquire, reported a £49.1 million loss during 2008 because of a major writedown on the value of its print assets.
NatMags, the UK operation of American media giant the Hearst Corporation, did not give any details in its annual accounts about the “impairment losses” of £55.7 million. Many media companies have been writing down the value of some assets because of the recession and consumers switching to online.
NatMags, which posted a £9.9 million profit a year earlier, would have been in profit without the writedown. Turnover dropped 3.6% to £344.3 million in the year to 31 December.
