The publisher of the Guardian and Observer newspapers produced overall revenues of £196.2m in the year to 31 March, compared with £198.2m for the previous year.

The Guardian sold 211,511 copies a day in June, down 10.7% year-on-year, while the Observer sold 243,946, a reduction of 10%. Print advertising shrunk 4%, at £43.7m.

GNM’s digital revenues jumped 16.3% year-on-year to £45.7m. Of that total, digital advertising was up by 26% to £14.7m, while other digital revenues came from services such as its Soulmates dating website.

The company blamed "a high cost base relative to sales" along with its digital investments – which include ipad, Facebook and Android Apps - for the increase in its operating losses, which stood at £31.1m a year ago.

Guardian and Observer editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger, said the company would cut costs by shaving £7m from its editorial expenditure, which it hopes to achieve by re-opening its voluntary redundancy programme.

The figures, which were confirmed by the Guardian in an article today, were leaked by the Sunday Times last month.

Full results for Guardian Media Group, which also owns half of the profitable Auto Trader car-buying website, will be published next month.