This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) fell into the red as it reported a pre-tax loss of £239m for the six months to 29 March, in a further sign of the dire state of the newspaper advertising market.

The owner of the Daily Mail and about 100 regional titles said that its results were affected by a £179m non-cash charge principally relating to assets acquired in recent years by its regional newspaper division Northcliffe Media, DMG World Media, Euromoney and DMG Radio.

Stripping out exceptional charges, DMGT saw pre-tax profits fall by 47% to £77m for the period and group revenues decline by 7% to £1.08bn.

The company said that operating profit at Northcliffe had plunged by 85% to £6m, with revenues down 23% to £166m, as advertising in sectors such as recruitment and property remained more than 50% down year on year.

At Associated Newspapers, its national newspaper arm, which publishes the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, operating profit fell 59% year on year to £18m, with revenue down 10% to £455m.

DMGT described trading conditions as "unprecedented".

The scale of the downturn reflected in its newspaper operations adds to a continuing bleak outlook for the UK news­paper market as a whole, and the future of regional titles in particular.

Its share price dipped today by 3.37% to 301p.