Electric Word 

Specialist publisher Electric Word is cautiously optimistic after a 14% fall in first-half pre-tax profits to £457,000 in a period of restructuring.

AIM-quoted Electric Word, which publishes in the ‘professional education’, ‘sport business’ and ‘specialist consumer’ markets, saw turnover fall 6% to £8.2m in the six months to May, while many media publishing companies have reported revenue falls of more than 20%.

Chief executive Julian Turner says, ‘We went through our products, cut our headcount and reduced the number of products, merging our education titles together.’ He explains that the company 'was prioritising profits over revenue' in the first half-year as it sought to improve margins.

Electric Word, which publishes trade gambling publication iGaming Business and sports science newsletter Peak Performance, derives more than 60% of sales from the professional education sector, with several subscription-only services. The London-based company also runs conferences and events for teachers and produces training materials.

Turner suggests that many of Electric Word's activities, such as publications for teachers, are likely to be protected from public spending cuts. He argues that many of its services are 'essential', such as training for child protection, where he contends that cutbacks are extremely unlikely.

He says the company is ‘cautious' about the short-term outlook, 'as we know there will be big cuts in education'. But he emphasises that the sector is generally ‘pretty resilient’, while Electric Word itself has cut its debts from £3.7m to £500,000.

House Broker Panmure Gordon forecasts earnings slipping from 1.08p to 0.82p a share for the year to November before rising to 0.94p in 2010-11, on sales of £16.6m and £17.5m respectively. Highlighted by Growth Company Investor last year at 4p, Electric Word’s shares are worth holding for the time being.