Ad blow hits Mail

The ailing owner of the Daily Mail newspaper has admitted to a catastrophic slump in revenues.

Daily Mail and General Trust, dumped out of the FTSE-100 index in June, said ad revenues at its national newspapers fell six per cent in 11 months to the end of August.

This was partly due to problems at the London Evening Standard, where circulation fell 7 per cent.

Things were worse still in the struggling regional division — subject of a botched sell-off bid last year.

Advertising was down eight per cent there, while income from circulation fell almost one per cent.