Its parent company Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said that the improvement helped it to achieve results "way ahead of expectations".

According to its half-year results to 4 April 2010, DMGT recorded a turnover of £958m, down 10% on last year's figure of £1.06bn. However, pre-tax profit rose from a loss of £222m to £36m.

The newspaper arm's turnover dropped 6% to £427m, from £455m the previous year. However, thanks to "significant cost reductions" made in the previous year, as well as the current year, operating profit rose 135% from £18m to £42m.

In a statement, DMGT said: "These actions offset the effect of a slight decline in circulation revenues."

Circulation fell 3% to £175m, in particular the Daily Mail's circulation fell 1.7% and the Mail on Sunday dropped 3.2%, although both titles increased market share.

According to the results, there was little change in advertising revenue – in quarter one, it dropped 7%, while in the second quarter, figures were up 11%.

Local newspaper publisher Northcliffe Media increased profit 121% to £14m, from £6m, although advertising revenue and revenue in general both dropped 9% to £93m and £150m respectively.

DMGT chief executive Martin Morgan said: "Trading in the first half of the year was ahead of our expectations. The strong half-year results reflect our focus on execution, as well as the benefits of DMGT’s diversified international portfolio of market-leading businesses in both B2B and consumer markets.

"While we remain cautious about the outlook, particularly in the UK, we are increasingly well-positioned to weather current economic uncertainties and to take advantage of improved conditions as they materialise."