Publishers are launching free titles to help maintain advertising sales

The publisher of the Daily Mail, London Evening Standard, Metro, business magazines and a host of regional titles made a pre-tax profit of �260m.

Northcliffe, its regional papers unit, saw profit fall 6% as the internet took more of its classified advertising.

The group said national ad revenues were down 6% for the year, but rose 1% in September, pointing to a recovery.

Competition

Falling advertising revenues for most of its national titles were offset by 8% growth at the Metro free paper - over a million copies of which are now distributed each day.

"The new financial year has started well with signs of a gentle recovery in some sectors of the national advertising market with our national titles producing strong circulation results in an ever competitive market," the company said in a statement.

In the face of falling circulation and advertising sales Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) slashed costs at the London Evening Standard last year and launched a new free evening paper, London Lite.