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Regional Independent Media (RIM), publisher of the Yorkshire Post,

has reported mixed fortunes in the advertising market in its third

quarter results.

The group revealed that within 24 hours of the 11 September tragedy,

national advertisers had started to cancel bookings - particularly in

the travel and finance sectors.

As a result, national ad revenues for the group are down 9 per cent for

the quarter year on year, and according to RIM, show "no sign of

recovering".

However, national advertising only makes up 5 per cent of the group's

total ad revenues and results for local advertising were more

encouraging.

All ad categories across the group's papers were up on last year -

recruitment by 7 per cent, motors by 5.4 per cent and local display

revenues by 6.4 per cent.

However, RIM sounded a note of caution for the recruitment market, as

sits vac advertising in its Yorkshire titles dipped below last year's

levels during October.

RIM's magazine unit has also suffered, particularly its Insider group of

business titles, which "experienced a complete standstill in advertising

bookings in the latter half of September".

RIM chief executive Chris Oakley said slower revenue growth had been

balanced by careful cost control - RIM made 60 job cuts over the

summer.

He added: "We believe these results show the underlying strength of

well-managed regional newspaper companies."