Daily Mail profit falls 9 percent

LONDON (Reuters) - Newspaper group Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGOa.L) posted a 9 percent fall in full-year pretax profit, and said its consumer media units were being affected by the challenging economic environment.

The publisher of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and London's Evening Standard reported pretax profit of 262 million pounds on Thursday, down from 288 million pounds, on revenue that was 3 percent ahead at 2.31 billion pounds.

Adjusted earnings per share fell 3 percent to 47.9 pence, it said.

"Although the worsening economic conditions had an adverse impact on the newspaper and property businesses, our B2B divisions continued to perform well," said Chief Executive Martin Morgan, who took the helm last month.

"The short-term outlook remains difficult and we are taking decisive action to defend profitability."

The company said it had put revenue and cost initiatives in place worth nearly 100 million pounds.

Daily Mail said in September it saw its results at the low end of expectations, with the market forecasting pretax earnings of 257 to 279 million pounds, excluding amortisation and impairment of intangible assets and exceptional items.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle)