Sales in the 26 weeks to 1 July were down 4% to £41.6m, while adjusted EBITDA nearly halved, falling 47% to £3.1m.
Chairman David Montgomery said that the advertising downturn combined with its investment in new brands had impacted the figures.
“In the first half, the group accelerated plans to implement the new operating model, which will deliver £1.1m of savings in the second half with c.£2.5m of annualised cost savings and restructuring costs of £0.9m.
“However, the new model primarily focuses on sustaining our news brands in local markets by increasing reach and customer engagement. Investment in technology and platforms is well advanced and the first relaunches of fully automated and integrated print, online and video brands is expected this quarter,” he said.
National World is in the process of pivoting to a new “digital-only” operating model.
While details regarding what this will mean for its printed titles remain under wraps, Montgomery stated: “The innovation involves a change to the operating model that is focused on automation including the immediate exploitation of artificial intelligence in production across both print and digital platforms.”
National World cut the amount of newsprint it used by 18% “primarily due to decreased circulation and reduced pagination”, which helped offset the increasing price of newsprint, which was up 16%, and in printing costs, up 7%.
“A reduction in newsprint costs has been confirmed for the third quarter, with the benefit expected to continue into the second half.”
Print revenues were down 8% at £31.7m.
Digital revenue grew by 9% to £8.9m with a huge 49% jump in video views, to 275m.
Staff numbers reduced by more than 25%, falling from 1,500 to around 1,100. National World said that 250 journalists have been retrained in video and all aspects of TV journalism. The group also launched a Freeview TV channel called Shots! On channel 276.
Montgomery said three components were constantly at play at the group – acquisitions, consolidation and innovation.
“A mixture of the first two is expected to increase revenues overall for the full year. The net effect of launches and acquisitions this year means a projected stabilisation of revenue for the first time in many years.”
National World acquired Insider Media and the Rotherham Advertiser in May. The titles have combined sales of £7m and are expected to contribute £1m in EBITDA in 2023.
Automation in print publishing will be rolled out for the group’s weekly titles during the remainder of the year with “purely local content, thereby increasing value to the consumer and advertiser”.
Other plans include the consolidation of a daily press unit to centrally relaunch eight titles “in a modern format”.
The share price went up by 4.14% to 19.37p on the news (52-week high: 27.40p, low: 14.90p)
