Shares in publishing group Mecom were sent to an all-time low today, after the company issued its second profit warning in two months.
Down 68p, or 46%, to 76.8p, the publisher said advertising revenues dropped 17% in the second quarter, after a 12% fall in Q1, due to poor advertising revenues in its core Dutch market. It had been trading as high as 229p in January this year.
The company, founded in 2000 by former Fleet Street editor and Mirror Group chief executive David Montgomery, is undergoing a major cost cutting exercise by shedding its newspapers that are no longer profitable.
Chief executive Tom Toumazis, who previously worked for Disney, Emap and Endemol, said: "It is clearly highly disappointing that Dutch advertising markets have deteriorated further since our last update, with a significant effect on the Group's financial performance."
He reiterated a recent decision to introduce a paywall – or a "product offering on a pay basis" as he prefers to call it – but admitted revenues will be hit into 2013 and beyond.
The group publishes several regional paid for titles and around 200 free papers in the Netherlands, some of which will be cut. It makes 85% of profits from its ten largest titles with revenues split between advertising and subscriptions.
Poor results have seen the company's board become one of the more recent recipients of investor fury in the Shareholder Spring.
Last month 43% of investors refused to vote in favour of the company's remuneration report.
Mr Montgomery left the company after a string of bad results. It led to a bitter boardroom battle in January 2011 with investors calling for his head, forcing him into a "planned retirement".
