Avusa announced a 46 percent drop in profit as it released its results for the year ended 31 March 2010 on Thursday.

Profit plummeted to R179-million from R332-million the previous year, the JSE-listed media and entertainment organisation said.

Advertising revenues were down 17 percent.

"Softer economic activity in a recessionary climate that was evident throughout the financial year saw reduced support for Avusa's main value driver of advertising," the group said.

Revenue from continuing operations decreased 4.0 percent from R4.9-billion to R4.7-billion.

This, together with a reduced gross margin due to recessionary market conditions, resulted in gross profit being R167-million lower than the comparative period, the group added.

Avusa's brands include The Sunday Times, The Times, The Sowetan, Business Day and Financial Mail.

The group said although advertising revenues remained under pressure across the newspaper and magazine divisions, these had picked up in the last quarter of the year as marketers began returning to print.

"We expect that recruitment advertising, hard hit by the slowdown in the economy, will be the last sector to recover."

Circulation revenue and copy sales of all Avusa's titles remained under pressure.

Subscriber debit-order rejections, which had been higher than usual, had normalised by year end, the group added.

"Readership of most of our titles continued to grow and The Sunday Times exceeded the four million readership level for the first time, growing to 4.2 million."

The Times again performed well, halving its loss to R13-million from last year's R25-million loss.

BDFM, Avusa's 50 percent joint venture with Pearson, and publisher of Business Day and Financial Mail, incurred a loss before interest and tax of R24-million against last year's R9-million loss.

Avusa added that BDFM's Weekender newspaper was closed due to on-going losses, with the final issue published on 7 November 2009.

Looking ahead, the group said the execution of its strategy to deliver long-term growth would deliver shareholder value.

"The positive impact from the Soccer World Cup and continued positive returns from sustainable initiatives introduced in the current recession, will be positive contributors to results."

Avusa added that it remained "well positioned" to capitalise on the anticipated improvement in the economy.

A dividend of 75 cents per share was declared.