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The advertising crisis gripping the UK's media owners worsened this week as two of the biggest publishers were hit by a massive slump in earnings. Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, yesterday revealed advertising revenue at the FT would fall by almost half this year. The company, which expects to lose £60m in the second half of 2001 in its internet ventures alone, announced it was merging FT.com and its other online operation FT Marketwatch. Meanwhile, at Rupert Murdoch's News International, which has lost at least £70m in the wake of the US attacks, up to 80 jobs are thought to be at risk. A spokeswoman yesterday refused to confirm or deny the figures, saying only that "internal changes" were taking place.
But it is believed at least a dozen ad sales jobs will be lost in the group, which includes the Times, Sunday Times, The Sun and The News of the World, as well as a number of journalists.
NI has slashed the number of pages its papers are carrying because of the huge fall in
advertising volumes.
Pearson meanwhile said there had been a "dramatic" fall in income at the FT, with the newspaper attracting very little advertising in the past month.
It said the slowdown would also have greater impact than expected on the RTL Group, the part-owner of Channel 5, in which it has a 22% stake.
The FT also announced it would be closing its monthly Connectis magazine, casting doubt over 15 full-time jobs.
There was already a jobs freeze in several departments at the FT which is now looking for some voluntary redundancies.
The financial crisis has also scuppered FT plans to move its marketing department and other staff spread across London to a multi-million pound "FT campus" next to its newspaper offices on Southwark Bridge.
Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino said: "We are now expecting profits to be significantly below our original plans for the year. These markets are cyclical in character and we will bounce back."
The FT is far from the only paper suffering from the combination of circumstances hitting advertising revenues.
Latest ACNielson MMS figures are believed to show ad revenue at the FT 42% down in September year on year, The Guardian 30% down, The telegraph 27% down and The Independent 21% down.
See research section for newspaper ABCs
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