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Scardino: FT advertising slump

The Financial Times was relaunched at the weekend, the day after the release of a statement from parent company Pearson showing the extent of the impact of war and the worldwide financial situation on the title.

Pearson, under chief executive Marjorie Scardino, said that advertising income at the business title had "deteriorated significantly in the past month".

Revenues were down 18% in the year to date and "the outlook remains uncertain", the company said.

It has seen its flagship daily battered during the advertising recession, as technology and high-end business advertisers pulled spend.

"If advertising continues at the levels we've seen in the year to date, FT Group profits would be lower than current market expectations but still ahead of last year," said a trading update released during the group's AGM on Friday.

The news came just hours before a radical revamp of the Financial Times was due to be unveiled, broadening its appeal in a bid to increase its advertising base.

Last Saturday's edition of the paper included a new magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, as part of an overhaul of the paper.

The company said that, while economic uncertainty caused by the war had an impact on current trading conditions, particularly its business newspapers, the progress of the rest of its businesses are performing in line with expectations.