At its annual general meeting today, the group, which also owns the Independent on Sunday and the Irish Independent, said it was "cautiously optimistic".
On the advertising front, the group said that the ad market had yet to regain last year's buoyant first-half levels, but that it showed "less volatility and more consistency".
"Operating costs remain well under control and are down on last year. The group continues to actively identify and achieve efficiencies across all of its operations," it said.
Separately, Independent News announced that it had appointed James Parkinson as chairman of its Australian subsidiary APN News & Media.
The appointment comes ahead of a shake-up of Australian media legislation, which could radically alter the currently restricted market.
Parkinson, who will oversee Independent News's 44.55% investment in APN, is currently chief financial officer of Independent News, based in Dublin. He will be replaced by Donal Buggy.
Sir Anthony O'Reilly, executive chairman of Independent News, said: "The appointment of James Parkinson as chairman of APN is a timely move. There is a great deal of change under way in Australia in respect to media legislation, particularly the media ownership rules. The new management changes will be of particular significance in this regard."
Shares in Independent News rose by 3.5p to 135.04p today, up by 2.7%.
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