SPH profits slump 6.2% as clients switch to online advertising

All hail Facebook and Twitter.

Singapore Press Holdings is up for a challenging future in its publishing business as advertising and circulation revenues decline.

In a report by OSK-DMG, SPH announced full-year revenue of SGD1.22bn (-2.0% YoY) and PATMI of SGD404.3m (-6.2% YoY), broadly in line with estimates.

OSK-DMG sees weakness in its core business as companies switch to online advertising from its traditional advertising platform.

Revenue from SPH’s newspaper and magazine (N&M) segment slid 6.0% YoY to SGD931.7m in FY14 (Aug). This was mainly driven by the decline in its advertising and circulation revenue, which were down 6.8% and 4.9% YoY respectively. Clients are switching to better and cheaper alternatives to advertise on the internet via social media platforms such as Facebook.