Profit in Archant's magazine and contract publishing operations grew 16.1% with the firm acquiring two Cambridgeshire titles, Agenda and Property Plus.

The Archant Life magazine business also experienced a period of acquisition with the addition of West Essex Life and Living Edge magazines as well as publishing and exhibition business WeddingLink.

Despite the group's positive results, Archant chairman Richard Jewson said: "the outlook for 2008 is uncertain" due to a weakening of advertising in the final quarter of 2007 continuing into 2008.

He added that "despite these uncertainties we anticipate that our magazine business will see continued growth and that we will be able to build further upon our on-line developments".

The group's online presence experienced a strong growth period with online revenues doubling to more than £2m, while monthly unique visitors across Archant's portfolio of 130-plus websites increased by 53.1%.

Archant director of development Ian Davies told printweek.com "The company has grown both organically and through acquisitions, something which we see continuing into 2008.

"Online is clearly a good area for us and one the market wants anyway.

"We're putting an increased focus on developing content for our online brands and it's an area we're hoping to see further growth in into the coming months," he said.

Growth within Archant's regional newspaper and printing operations were more modest with profits increasing 0.9%.

The regional media business identified the sale of its Scottish titles to Johnston Press among the reasons for a reduction in the company's net debt from £54.8m at the beginning of 2007 to £36.9m at the end of the year.

In a preliminary statement to shareholders, Archant chairman Jewson said that the 3.4% increase in operating profits to £30.5m was also aided by tight cost control within the group.