Daily Mail rewrites its headline

Add this all together and operating profits - adjusted for non-annual events, acquisitions, disposals and currency movements - climbed about a fifth last half. These gains, together with the news that property portal Zoopla, in which DMGT owns a 53 per cent stake, intends to float next month, sent its shares up 7 per cent on the day of the results.

A surprise contribution came from its media segment, which includes the eponymous middle-brow newspaper. The division eked out a 1 per cent increase in underlying sales as growth in online advertising offset declining print ad sales and circulation revenues. But underlying profits jumped 44 per cent to £49m thanks to the closure and relocation of newspaper printworks.

The standout performer was the unit's news website, MailOnline, where sales climbed 45 per cent to £28m and traffic soared 60 per cent to 180m unique visitors in March. DMGT has also pruned its portfolio, disposing of four digital-recruitment websites in the year. The expected proceeds of £150m should fund further growth.

DMGT's events division also helped, increasing underlying sales by more than a quarter to £66m. That was driven by DMGT increasing the frequency of two of its largest events. It also bought Quartz Coatings Events, which organises paint and coatings events in Morocco, Mexico and Indonesia. The deal should help it roll out existing events to new territories.

One concern for investors may be RMS(one), DMGT's risk-management software. Its launch has been pushed back from April to the end of this year, and its estimated sales contribution has been slashed from £15m-£25m to £5m. But DMGT still expects it to deliver operating profits of between £45 and £50m in its first full year.

Broker Investec Securities expects pre-tax profits of £283m for the full year, giving EPS of 52.7p, rising to £301m and 55.6p in 2014-15.