Sales at the group dipped £2.8m to £67.3m while operating profit before amortisation of intangible assets and exceptional items came in at £2.6m, down from £4.4m.

Turnover within its newspaper and printing operation was down 7.2% at £44.9m, with Archant citing a reduction in print advertising revenues, which fell 13.2%.

Richard Jewson, chairman of Archant, said the group's performance had been "adversely impacted" by reductions in newspaper print advertising.

He added: "The economy remains fragile, and it is simply not possible to predict when an upturn may be seen, or indeed whether the UK economy will fall back into recession.  

"But we continue to invest in the development of our people and new products while seeking to improve the efficiency of all our processes."

The group's magazine revenues were up 2.8% to £22.3m while property advertising revenues grew 11.9% and subscriptions sales too were up by 1.4%.
 
Elsewhere, digital revenues grew 3.3% to £3.1m and Archant's digital display revenues increased 10.9%.

Jewson said the group was "transforming" its traditional business in a bid to take advantage of new technology.

"We are not waiting for the economy to improve to take action, and provided there is no further deterioration in our markets, we expect better profits in the second half to achieve our forecast for this year and to achieve growth in profits in 2012," he added.