Independent News & Media (INM) has posted a pre-tax profit of €15.1 million for the first half of 2015, is cash positive, and has said it will pursue a prudent course of developing new income streams.

The media group said pre-tax profit was up 13.5 per cent on the prior year as a result of continued advertising revenue growth and prudent management of the cost base.

Total revenue for the six-month period was €157.3 million, a decline of 0.3 per cent on the prior year.

INM said total advertising revenues was up 2.9 per cent with digital advertising revenue growth of 43.8 per cent more than offsetting the marginal decline in publishing advertising revenue.

The company said proceeds of €119.3 million from the sale of APN were used to clear group debt reducing the interest charge from €3.1 million to €1.9 million.

Looking at ecommerce opportunities

INM group chief executive Robert Pitt said the first half of 2015 has been very satisfactory for the company both from an operational perspective and from a financial perspective.

“During the period we disposed of our stake in APN which enabled us to clear the group’s debt and now puts INM in a cash positive position which represents quite a change from the Group’s recent history,” he added.

The net retirement benefit obligation has decreased from €100.5 million at December 31st 2014, to €87.5 million at 30th June, 2015. Net cash was €35.4 million.

In a briefing to journalists Mr Pitt said the group’s cash belonged to its shareholders and it would now look at ways in which it could be prudently invested to create new revenue streams that would grow. Asked if INM would be looking at new media assets, he said its journalism brought in an audience and the group needed to leverage off that.

One area that was being looked at was ecommerce and products that added value for customers who came to the Independent website, though it was important that while doing so a clear division was maintained between editorial content and commercial offerings.

No paywall plans

He said the group did not have a plan for introducing a paywall at this point. No business in the newspaper industry had shown a path “for what needs to be done” and INM would move forward very cautiously, he said.

It was inevitable that there would be more consolidation in the sector, he said, pointing to the recent agreements with The Irish Times in relation to printing and distribution.

Approximately half of the reduction in costs in the first half of the year came from reduced interest charges arising from the clearing of its debt, and the rest from savings in editorial and elsewhere. Mr Pitt said did not want to give a figure for the cost of libel to the group but said INM was appealing the Monica Leech case to Europe. The Irish libel regime can stop the media doing its job, he said, and needed to be changed.

The clearing of the group’s debt and its cash positive position represented quite a change from the group’s recent history. “We are fully in control of our own destiny,” he said.