Original article as below:
Shortist Media, the publisher of ShortList and Stylist free weekly magazines, has reported revenues of £5.6m and has substantially reduced losses in its second year of trading, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
ShortList: substantially reduced losses
Revenues grew 81% year on year from £3.1m to £5.6m in the year to 31 August 2009, driven by increased volumes of advertising and repeat commercial business as ShortList, its men's title, established itself on the country's streets.
Pre-tax losses were reduced from £2.7m to £456,000, despite the tough economic conditions that have hit the publishing industry.
The company's operating loss was similarly reduced, falling to £463,000 from £2.9m.
The publishing group, headed by founder and chief executive Mike Soutar, launched women's free title Stylist in October 2009, just after the end of its financial year.
The company attributed start-up costs of £181,000 to Stylist, relating to research, development, set-up costs and recruitment and marketing expenses.
The group is aiming for Stylist, which has a distribution of around 400,000, to be profitable in its third year of trading, according to Soutar.
ShortList has a distribution of more than 510,000 copies – significantly higher than the circulation of men's paid for consumer titles.
But publishing heavyweights such as IPC and Bauer have failed to be convinced by the free-publishing model.
The ShorList Media report states: "Our original launch brand, ShortList, continued to grow rapidly and matured into a recognised and respected part of men's media markets."
Soutar said Shortlist Media was "hitting its stride in its second year, in spite of unprecedented economic conditions".
Wages and salaries remained level at around £1.32m in the period, as did employee numbers, which were reduced from 26 to 25.
The group's directors include Phil Hilton, former editor of Nuts, Sir David Arculus, the architect of Emap's surge to becoming a publishing powerhouse, and Kris Thykier, the film producer and husband of TV star Claudia Winkleman.
As I thought, it cannot be ignored the benefits brought from the advertising shown in their paper format or their website even it's free.
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