Commenting on the results, Mari-Liis Rüütsalu, CEO of Ekspress Grupp, said that the second quarter of this year had proved successful in boosting both online advertising and digital subscription revenues.

Rüütsalu said: "The strong second quarter results met expectations, supported by the European Parliament election campaign."

"We are awaiting a positive impact on the second half of this year's results, due to the upcoming Lithuanian parliamentary elections in October," Rüütsalu added.

The group's digital revenues are increasingly based on subscription sales, forming a growing base of recurring revenue without the need for additional sales activities and costs., Rüütsalu added, noting that this covered all three Baltic stats.

"The group is gradually moving in the direction of its strategic goals, and aims to offer paid digital content to at least 340,000 subscribers by 2026," the Ekspress Grupp CEO continued.

Ekspress Grupp's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for Q2 2024 stood at €3.0 million, a 27 percent rise.

Increased volumes from ticket sales platforms and digital outdoor screens also helped drive this, the company said.

EBITDA for the first half of the year stood at €3.5 million, however, a 2 percent fall, which the group put down to the negative impact to a weaker economic environment in the Baltic states during the first quarter, and the timing of election cycles in the three countries to later in the year, compared with the previous year.

Ekspress Grupp reported a net profit of €1.0 million for Q2 2024 2024, a 67 percent rise on year.

However, the company experienced a net loss of €200,000 for the first half of the year, €80,000 higher than the loss recorded in the same period last year, according to the company's report.

This was attributed primarily to higher interest rates resulting from the rise in the Euribor rate, plus increased amortization costs due to the company's investments.

The group's revenues for the second quarter rose by 6 percent, to €19.6 million.

In the first half of 2024, Ekspress Grupp reported revenue growth of 2 percent on year, to €35.9 million.

As of the end of June, digital revenues accounted for 87 percent of the group's total turnover, up 9 percent on year, while these revenues grew in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The company reports it gained over 47,000 new digital subscriptions in the Baltic states on year, a 27 percent rise and bringing the total to 223,000 as of the end of June 2024.

In May of this year, the group paid a dividend of €0.06 per share to shareholders, to a total of €1.8 million.

In Estonia, Ekspress Grupp publishes investigative weekly Eesti Ekspress, agricultural weekly Maaleht, daily Eesti Päevaleht and celebrity gossip magazine Kroonika among other titles, while the Delfi news portal operates in all three Baltic states.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!