Following a number of plant closures at its printing subsidiary Harmsworth Printing, as well as other cost-cutting measures, the company cut its net debt from £1.05bn to £862m.

Pre-tax profit for the year to 3 October 2010 was £146.3m, compared to a £300.7m loss in 2009, despite sales dropping from £2.06bn to £1.97bn.

Its national media arm Associated Newspapers recorded a turnover of £850m, down from £876m last year, with operating profit increasing from £62m to £95m. According to DMGT, the drop in turnover was down to the impact of closed or sold businesses.

Both the Daily Mail (2%) and The Mail on Sunday (4%) dropped in circulation, however, owing to overall dips in newspaper readership, both titles increased their market share to 21% and 19% respectively, both record highs.

Revenue at local media arm Northcliffe Media dropped from £328m to £294m, although it did increase its operating profit from £24m to £30m. In the first half of 2010 its regional titles fell 7.7%, compared to an industry average of 6.7%.

Going forward the company is cautiously optimistic, with Associated recording a 9% increase in advertising revenue in the first seven weeks of 2010/11 compared to last year.

However, Northcliffe faces another tough year, with UK advertising down 7% on last year in the opening seven weeks and a like-for-like drop of 8% in September.

Chief executive Martin Morgan said: "Trading exceeded our expectations throughout the year. Our UK consumer businesses have achieved sharp improvement in profitability, reflecting the actions taken to reduce costs and to eliminate loss-making activities, and growth in our national advertising."