NOVUS, the former printing arm of Naspers unbundled into separate listing in 2015, reported a 2% decline in revenue to R4.17bn but aftertax profit grew 23% to R448m in the year to end-March.It declared a 70c dividend, 9.4% higher than the previous year’s 64c.Retail inserts and catalogues remained the highest contributor to the group’s revenue at 29%.Newsprint products contributed 21.9%, and magazines 20.6%."These sectors continue to be a challenge. Circulation figures indicate an effective annual decline of 1.8% and 6.1% in the circulation of newspapers and magazines respectively over the past five years. The circulation of paid-for newspapers (which represents the majority of the newspaper market in tonnage) has been worst hit, declining at an effective annual rate of 5% per year over the same period," Wednesday’s results statement said.Books and directories contributed 20.7% to the group’s revenue.Novus said it benefited from the global oversupply of paper, but suffered from the w...
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