Emap consumer magazine titles

FHM Red Heat J17 Smash Hits Q Empire

The US magazines, which Emap brought for $1.2bn (�890m) in 1999, had been hit by falling advertising revenues and the slowdown in the US economy.

Emap has been looking at the possible sale of the US operation, and said it would make a final announcement about it in the near future.

Profit up 5%

Mr Hand will be replaced by non-executive chairman and former chief executive Robin Miller, who has been with the company since the 1960s and is a former editor of Motorcycle News.

He is also a non-executive director of The Tote, Moss Bros and Channel 4.

Pop star Robbie Williams arrives at the Q magazine awards

Emap's pre-tax profit for the year to 31 March rose 5% to �197m before a �50m digital investment and exceptional items.

Total revenues rose to �1.153bn.

Analysts had forecast a pre-tax post-digital profit of �130-140m pounds.

Emap owns a wide range of consumer and business magazines such as Elle, FHM, Heat, Empire and Smash Hits and commercial radio stations including Kiss FM.

It also has a substantial exhibitions business.

Its US arm, which pulls in half its advertising revenue from the depressed automotive sector, saw underlying profit drop 25% to �28m pounds in the year to the end of March.

Shares down half from peak

Emap said the new year had started reasonably well, but it shared an uncertain outlook for advertising revenues with the rest of the sector.

Mr Miller, who was Emap CEO for 13 years until 1998, will be succeeded as chairman by Adam Broadbent, chairman of Britain's second biggest clothing chain Arcadia.

Mr Miller said he would serve for two years as chief executive, and his return to the job would help the company put a tough few years behind it.

He said: "Clearly all media companies have had turbulent times over the last couple of years... we more than most because of the American experience, which we confess has been disappointing."

Resignation 'inevitable'

At 1120 GMT, Emap shares were up 20.5 pence, or 2.55%, at 830.5p, down from 853p at the start of the year and a high of 1,773p touched in January 2000.

We are in a sales process. We are not talking to anyone about any joint ventures

Robin Miller on Emap's US arm

They were up modestly on the day, as investors calculated the departure of Mr Hand could lead to the kind of wider shake-up at the group some have been urging.

At the time of the Petersen purchase, some analysts had said Emap was paying too much for the US titles.

Since then, there have also been differences between head office and the US management over how the titles were to be managed.

Analysts said Mr Hand's resignation came as no surprise.

Brendan Hoey, media analyst at Bear Stearns, said: "It was looking increasingly inevitable."

"He had been very closely associated with the US acquisition."

'Scapegoat'

One fund manager with a 1.5% stake in Emap said Mr Hand had been a "scapegoat", and noted that "other members of the board, Mr Miller included, worked on the US deal"

Emap denied it was talking about a joint venture for EMAP USA after speculation that French media group Lagardere had expressed an interest in linking EMAP USA with its Hachette Filipacchi unit - publisher of Elle and Car & Driver.

"That's not on the agenda at all. It's just speculation,"Mr Miller said.

"We are in a sales process. We are not talking to anyone about any joint ventures," he added.

Any sale of Emap's US arm would not include its successful men's magazine FHM, however, which has beat Emap targets by reaching a circulation of more than 800,000 in early 2001, he added.

Emap denied reports that it planned to sell its profitable business-to-business publications arm.

The company said it would raise its full-year dividend by 6.5% to 19.5 pence per share.