B2B magazine publisher Centaur joins the long list of traditional publishers being squeezed by the downturn and uncertainty in the markets. In an interim management statement taking in from June 30 to date, the Media Week and NMA publisher saw revenues decline 16 percent year on year due to “significant reductions in advertising expenditure” and “unprecedented uncertainty”. Most of the reduction was in Centaur’s Legal & Financial division, which includes The Lawyer. The company says the figure only looks bad because it had a good 2007, in which revenues rose by six percent year on year in 1H07 but fell by four percent in 2H07. So the cost-cuts are coming: having already made “significant cost reductions” in the past year Centaur will continue to manage its cost base – and when publishers say that, they usually mean job cuts.

—Defiant in the downturn: Paradoxically, the company has no debt and says it will sustain its investment in new products and acquisitions. Centaur also claims to have leading publication in each of its verticals and believes that “in a downturn there is a flight to quality” in advertising terms, so it’s well-placed to ride out the storm. The release says there are “incremental growth opportunities” during the downturn both in print and online, though quite what those opportunities are remains unsaid.

Release.