The regional news publisher experienced an 85% fall in profits to the end of March as advertising revenues in the recruitment and property divisions collapsed, falling by 47% and 54% respectively.

Over the past six months, the company has cut headcount in the division by 500 jobs, 11% of the total workforce, with its printing divisions being affected by the closure of its Grimsby site at the end of last year and further consultations across its Harmsworth printing division.

However, Peter Williams, finance director of DMGT, said that it was not the case that print was in decline when advertising revenues were growing.

"Recruitment advertising is down nearly as much online as it is in print," he said. "We are a long way from the decline of print and we are embracing the combined model and designing the right product for the right market."

The group's national newspaper division fared better with print revenues growing 0.6% to £181m, benefiting from increased cover prices, which mitigated a 5.8% decline in the circulation of the Daily Mail.

Underlying advertising rates at the Daily Mail and sister title Mail on Sunday declined by 15% while classified advertising fell by 13% to £29m. Online advertising rates rose 15% to £5m.

The company reported the strongest performance in its B2B division where underlying profit rose by 2% to £15m, driven by its events business in Dubai.

Martin Morgan, DMGT chief executive, said: "Our B2B operations have been resilient in the face of the economic crisis, achieving growth, excluding the property businesses, boosted by currency gains in the period.

"The overall first-half result has been badly affected by the impact of the recession on our consumer media advertising revenues.

"However, the decisive action taken to defend profitability, along with the continued management of our cost base, will help to offset the effect of continued weak trading conditions in the second half of the year."