The media company has assets including the NZ Herald, ZB radio stations and OneRoof. Photo: RNZ/ Brad White
NZME has made a first-half loss, with revenue down 3 percent, reflecting tough economic conditions.
The media company, with assets including the NZ Herald, ZB radio stations and OneRoof, made a net loss of $393,000 in the six months ended June, including $5.2 million of one time costs.
In addition to some one-time restructuring costs, chief executive Michael Boggs said legal costs associated with its most recent annual meeting were higher than usual.
However, it did make an underlying profit of $23.9m, which was 12 percent up on last year, with the full year expected to be between $57m and $59m.
"We have already seen strong performance at the start of the second half of the year, with overall advertising revenue for July up 2 percent year on year and improved profitability."
Boggs said the company was focused on growing its property advertising platform, OneRoof, which saw underlying profit growth of $600,000 on the year earlier.
"OneRoof outperformed the market with a 16 percent growth in residential listings revenue."
Audio division revenue rose $700,000 to $57.1m, while digital revenue rose 6 percent.
Podcast revenue was little changed with a gain of $200,000 to $1.7m.
Subscriptions across NZME's publishing division rose 5 percent supported by an uptake in digital subscriptions.
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