The publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail On Sunday revealed a 12 per cent slump in print advertising in the second half of its financial year and warned that sales could also be hit in 2016.

Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) said the print advertising decline was a "significant deterioration" on a five per cent fall in the first half of the year to September 30.

It said over the coming year its newspaper underlying sales will range between minus two per cent and two per cent as falling circulation and print advertising are balanced against growing digital revenue.

The group's comments come as it reported full-year adjusted pre-tax profit down four per cent to £281m, after also facing "challenging conditions" at its business information arm Euromoney.

It said operating profit at its business to business division, which includes Euromoney, tumbled 12 per cent to £206m, after falls in revenues from investment banking and commodities clients.

The group added that trading in the first quarter to date at its dmg media unit, which contains its newspapers, "has been satisfactory, although we remain cautious about the medium term outlook given continuing external uncertainties, particularly for UK print advertising".

Analysts cut full-year forecasts for the group's current financial year.

Chief executive Martin Morgan insisted the group had reported a "resilient" performance.

But he added: "The challenging market conditions in the UK print advertising market and those facing Euromoney in the investment banking and commodities sectors are likely to have an adverse impact on full-year 2016 results."

Analysts at Numis cut their full-year 2016 forecast for DMGT by 15 per cent to £257m due to unit sales, lower sales at Euromoney and additional investment.