Agora records net loss of zł. 4.8 million for first quarter

Top media group Agora cut its 2003 revenue forecast yesterday after saying it slid to a net loss in the first quarter due to a continuing slowdown on the advertising market and losses at recently acquired businesses. The group said it suffered a zł. 4.8 million net loss for the three months to the end of March, based on International Accounting Standards, compared with a forecast zł. 1.6 million net loss in a poll of analysts. Chief Executive Wanda Rapaczynski said she expected the overall advertising market to stagnate this year and the daily newspaper ad sector to decline 8.8%. Agora's flagship Gazeta Wyborcza controls nearly half of the daily newspaper market. According to the company's estimates, the total national ad market shrank 1% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2003, while the newspaper segment fell 11%. The quarterly figures included the results of a color magazines business, billboard firm Art Marketing Syndicate and a number of radio stations, which boosted Agora's revenues by zł. 42 million, but depressed its bottom line by zł. 10 million. (Reuters; Puls Biznesu, p. 6) A.K.