Trans-Tasman media group APN News & Media has closed its six-year-old Ballina print site as its latest figures show conflicting results across its business. Sales from the company’s Australian Regional Media business (ARM) fell by 13.9 per cent to $107.8m. Outdoor revenue rose by 7.2 per cent to $19.5m. The New Zealand business recorded a dip in turnover of 3.1 per cent to $136.7m. However overall the company which operates newspaper, radio, website and outdoor businesses turned around its impairment-impacted $392.2m loss in 2011-12 to a $24.6m profit. Its net profit after tax and before exceptional items was up by $1m to $16.2m for the six months. The company’s statutory net profit after tax was $12.8m, compared to a loss of $319.4m for the corresponding period in 2012. Net debt dropped by $17m and the company says its commitment to reduce debt by $40m-$50m by the end of the year will be filfilled.

APN Outdoor, the company’s joint venture with Quadrant p/e, saw its revenue rise by just one per cdent to $97.8m, a decent result given that the billboard market overall was down by six per cent. EBITDA for outdoor slumped by by 20 per cent to $8.4m. APN’s Yandina site is now printing most of the newspapers printed at the former Ballina site, which included the Lismore daily, Northern Star, and the Daily Examiner for Grafton.

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