New Vision Printing and Publishing Company returned to profit in the first half of its financial year, as a steep drop in the cost of sales more than offset a decline in revenues.
The government-controlled media group reported net profit of Shs220.8mn ($59,148) for the six months ending December 2025, reversing a loss of Shs856.9mn in the same period a year earlier. Revenues slid 4.2 per cent to Shs40.8bn from Shs42.6bn, but gross profit rose 24.7 per cent to Shs10.8bn, the clearest sign yet that the company’s cost discipline is beginning to yield results.
The swing to profit was driven by an 11.5 per cent reduction in the cost of sales to Shs30bn, which the company attributed to lower spending on newsprint, consumables, printing inks and commercial paper, itself a reflection of falling circulation volumes. Operating expenses rose 3.3 per cent to Shs10.1bn, held back in part by a 72 per cent jump in expected credit losses on financial assets to Shs1bn. Administrative expenses, by contrast, fell 2 per cent to Shs7.4bn.
The result left the company with an operating profit of Shs1.8bn, against an operating loss of Shs394.8mn in the prior-year period, an improvement of more than Shs2.2bn.
Cash generation was another bright spot. Operating cash flow turned sharply positive, reaching Shs6.9bn for the half year, compared with a cash outflow of Shs11.8bn in the equivalent period of 2024. Earnings per share stood at Shs2.9, against a loss per share of Shs11.2 a year ago.
New Vision has been working to arrest a decline that set in around the 2022/2023 fiscal year, marked by falling revenues and mounting losses. Although new revenue streams, such as commercial printing, a business line in which the company invested heavily, have grown to become significant contributors, they have not yet fully replaced the income lost from newspaper sales and advertising.
There are, nonetheless, some reasons for cautious confidence. In the full year to June 2025, revenue edged up 0.2 per cent to Shs80.5bn, supported by a 12.9 per cent rise in print advertising revenue, even as the overall loss narrowed to Shs9.7bn from Shs10.2bn. The Ugandan government, already the majority shareholder, also injected Shs25bn into the company during the year through a preference share issue — irredeemable, non-cumulative and convertible — shoring up the balance sheet after a period of heavy borrowing.
Circulation, however, remains a persistent drag. Income from newspaper sales — the fourth-largest revenue stream after print advertising, commercial printing and television — fell 11 per cent in the full year. Data from the South Africa-based Audit Bureau of Circulations shows that both of its newspaper titles, the English-language New Vision and the Luganda-language Bukedde, recorded circulation declines in the final two quarters of 2025. The half-year drop in cost of sales is itself partly a consequence of those lower print runs.
For the full year to June 2026, management is targeting revenue growth of “14 per cent to Shs99.3bn” (though the two figures are not straightforwardly reconcilable) along with a return to net profitability. The company has set a profit target of Shs5.3bn.
“Looking ahead to FY2025/26, the company has set a profit target of Shs5.3bn,” Don Wanyama, New Vision’s chief executive, said in the annual report. “This will be achieved through a combination of revenue growth and cost containment measures, including a reduction in newsprint costs due to favourable global prices, HR cost savings, and tighter control over commissions and outsourcing expenses.”
The company’s management said it expects “the business to recover in the coming periods as initiatives to strengthen revenue generation and operational performance take effect.”
($1 = Shs3,733.41)
