DMGT said its business-to-businesses divisions continued to see strong growth in revenues, and it was expecting its B2B operations to produce healthy results for the rest of the year.
Circulation revenues for the period from Associated Newspapers are largely unchanged at £180m, compared with £181m for the same period last year.
The Daily Mail has continued to increase its national share of the newspaper market, with the Mail on Sunday performing in line with the rest of the market for the six-month period to March 2006.
The Evening Standard has managed to halt its circulation decline, while Metro's distribution continued to average more than 1m copies, with circulation for March up 10%, attributable to its new franchises in Liverpool and Cardiff.
Display advertising revenues at the group fell by 9% to £175m, with classified ads falling 9% to £53m. DMGT said the advertising market continued to remain volatile, but there were signs of a slight recovery in display ads, which rose 0.4% year on year, with the group expecting similar growth in May.
In the group's regional newspaper activity, Northcliffe's operating profits fell by £0.8m to £39.1m, due to falling revenue, down 4% to £247m.
However, Northcliffe's circulation revenues of £49m were unchanged from the same period last year. Northcliffe's morning and evening titles declined less than the industry average, but DMGT has said there is "little sign of an advertising recovery in regional newspaper titles".
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