Hindustan Media Ventures, which publishes Hindustan – the Hindi newspaper from the Hindustan Times Group, showed no signs of a recovery in its business as print media continued to grapple from the impact of rising internet penetration.
Net profit fell 73% on year to Rs 13.2 cr, even as profit before exception items and tax fell 72% to Rs 19.1 cr.
The numbers were impacted by a 4% decline in net sales and a 67% fall in other income.
As a result, total revenue fell 10% on year to Rs 235 cr.
The print sector has been hit as the ‘new generation’ prefers to get its news from social media like Facebook and WhatsApp.
Despite the falling sales, costs continued to rise for the company.
Material costs, comprising primarily newsprint expenses, increased 13.3% on year to 107 cr in the Apr-Jun quarter.
The performance comes in line with the disappointing trend shown by the company in recent quarters, but was not as bad, in some respects, as its results for the previous Jan-Mar quarter.
In Jan-Mar, the company’s consolidated operating revenue had fallen sharply by about 14%, while operating profit (EBITDA) fell to Rs 52 cr from Rs 74 cr a year earlier.