European consumer publisher Mecom provided some encouragement with robust first quarter earnings despite falling advertising revenues.

Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) improved by €5.2m year-on-year, as the benefit of its cost-cutting counterbalanced falls in revenue and the effect of disposals of businesses during 2013.

Costs for the group were down 17%, down 10% on a pro-forma basis that excludes the effect of disposals.

Advertising revenue for the group was down 13% fall on a pro-forma basis. Pro-forma circulation declined around 2% for the group, with Denmark and Netherlands at similar levels.

In the Netherlands, advertising was 20% lower, down 15% on a pro-forma basis, as the stronger trading environment noted in the group's full-year results announcement continued. This was despite the fact that Easter falls in April in 2014 having been in March in 2013.

Denmark was broadly as expected, with advertising down 9% on a pro-forma basis, or 38% year-on-year, as previous trends continued.

Looking forward, Mecom said that if current trends in Dutch advertising continue for the rest of the year it expected full-year EBITDA to be similar to the underlying pro-forma 2013 EBITDA of €74m, with a consequent improvement in earnings per share relative to current market expectations.

Shares in Mecom were up 1.45% to 131.13p at 15:15 on Thursday.

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