($1 = 82.7350 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
BENGALURU, Feb 14 (Reuters) - India's HT Media Ltd swung to a quarterly loss on Tuesday, from a year-ago
profit, as its legacy print business continues to suffer from
lower advertiser spending and high newsprint prices.
HT Media, the owner of national daily Hindustan Times,
reported a consolidated net loss of 218.9 million rupees ($2.65
million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared to a
profit of 448.8 million rupees a year earlier.
Newspaper owners across the globe have seen their fortunes
dwindle for years now, due to high newsprint prices and falling
ad spending as the pattern of news consumption shifts to digital
channels.
HT Media's print vertical, which accounts for about 80% of
total revenue, saw its ad revenue drop 12% to 2.84 billion
rupees, while higher newsprint prices due to inflation also hit
results.
"Persistent general inflation acted as a dampener, resulting
in a relatively muted festive quarter," said Shobhana Bhartia,
chairperson of HT Media.
The New Delhi-based company's total expenses rose 17.8% to
5.18 billion rupees, with the cost of materials consumed jumping
29%.
HT Media, however, said it expects to benefit from easing
raw material prices and an improvement in ad spending as the
business environment stabilises.
The company, which also owns the Mint newspaper, said its
revenue from operations contracted 5.5% to 4.4 billion rupees.
Earlier this month, DB Corp Ltd , which publishes
Dainik Bhasker, reported a 44.2% fall in quarterly profit due to
high newsprint prices.
HT Media's shares fell as much as 1.3% after the results.
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