Pre Close Trading Update

26 March 2015

Daily Mail and General Trust plc ('DMGT')

Pre Close Trading Update

Ahead of DMGT's half year end on 31 March 2015, this statement provides an update on progress in the current year. It covers the five month period to the end of February 2015 as well as the Group's financial position and performance during the period, updated to the latest practicable date.

Trading in line with our expectations; outlook for the year unchanged:

· DMGT underlying# revenue in line with last year

· Underlying growth of 2% from the B2B businesses, 4% after adjusting for the timing of Euromoney's events

· Underlying revenue decline of 2% from dmg media

· Continued active portfolio management; dmg information acquisition in February

· £100 million share buy back programme continued; £57 million now acquired

· Revenue and profit outlook for the year unchanged

+ Adjusting for the timing of Euromoney's events† would result in underlying growth rates of +1% for DMGT Group and +4% for B2B for the 5 month period.

Business to Business (B2B)

· Risk Management Solutions (RMS):reported revenues increased 3%, benefiting from the stronger US dollar. The core business's revenues were in line with last year on an underlying basis but overall underlying revenues decreased by 2% due to the expected lower RMS(one) consultancy revenues. The revised plan for RMS(one) is being implemented and remains on track to deliver the staged programme of incremental deliverables during 2015.

· dmg information: delivered underlying growth of 5%. Reported revenues increased by 8%, benefiting from the stronger US dollar. Genscape (the energy business) continued to deliver double digit underlying growth. The property information portfolio (which includes Landmark, SearchFlow, EDR, Trepp, Xceligent and Buildfax) and Hobsons (the education business) delivered single digit underlying growth. Revenue growth rates in both these sectors are expected to increase over the remainder of the year and the full year outlook for dmg information remains around 10%.

· dmg events: performed as expected producing good underlying growth of 14%.

· Euromoney Institutional Investor: released a trading update earlier today, commenting on the expected performance for the six months to March 2015. Euromoney continues to trade in line with expectations. The challenging trading conditions in the investment banking sector continue to offset the improving performance in the asset management sector. The revenue performance to date has been adversely impacted by the timing of events.

dmg media

· dmg media: delivered an underlying revenue decline of 2%. Circulation revenues were down 4% due to declining volumes, although both Mail Newspaper titles continued to gain market share* with the Daily Mail achieving a record 23.2% in February 2015.

Total underlying# advertising revenues across dmg media were up 1%, with newspapers down 6%, newspaper companion websites (mainly MailOnline) up 20% and other digital advertising (mainly Wowcher) up 29%. Reported advertising revenues declined due to the disposal of the digital recruitment business, Evenbase.

· MailOnline's digital advertising revenue growth of £5 million (20%) to £29 million for the five months partly offset the £7 million (9%) decline in print advertising revenues, to £76 million at the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday for the same period. Underlying advertising revenues across the Mail businesses as a whole, for print and digital combined, were consequently down 2%. MailOnline's global monthly unique browsers in February stood at 220 million, up 32% on last year, and average global daily unique browsers were a record 14.8 million, an increase of 31% on last year.

· Metro delivered a resilient performance, growing UK print advertising revenues by 4%.

· Wowcher continued to perform strongly, with revenue growth of 34%, and now has a substantial database of 6.5 million subscribers, 40% more than February 2014.

For the four weeks since 22 February 2015, total underlying# advertising revenues for dmg media are 5% higher than last year.

Active Portfolio Management

The acquisition of businesses for the B2B portfolio has continued. In February, Hobsons, dmg information's education business, acquired Starfish Retention Solutions, the US based provider of higher education student support and advising systems. During the first quarter of the financial year, Genscape, dmg information's energy information business, acquired Energy Fundamentals and a controlling stake in Petrotranz. Finally, in December Euromoney acquired a 15.5% stake in a new company incorporated to acquire Dealogic Holdings plc.

Euromoney disposed of its interests in Capital Data and Capital Net as part of the Dealogic transaction and the disposal of Lewtan, dmg information's financial information business, also completed in the first quarter.

In January, dmg media acquired Elite Daily, the US based news and entertainment website. The disposal of Jobsite, the remaining part of dmg media's digital recruitment business, completed in October 2014.

Share buy back programme

DMGT continued the £100 million share buy back programme announced in September 2014, acquiring a further £33 million of shares in the period. As of 25 March 2015, £57 million of shares have now been acquired from the current programme.

A conference call will be held with City analysts at 8.00 am on 26 March 2015. The dial-in number is +44 (0)20 3427 1901; conference code: 8112126. A replay of the call will be available on DMGT's website at www.dmgt.com.

Next trading update

The Group's next scheduled announcement of financial information will be its results for the half year ended 31 March 2015, which will be released on 21 May 2015.

About DMGT

DMGT is an international business built on entrepreneurship and innovation. We bring together leading companies and talented people to provide businesses and consumers with high-quality analysis & insight, information, news and entertainment.

Notes

# Underlying revenue is revenue on a like-for-like basis, adjusted for constant exchange rates, disposals, closures,non-annual events occurring in the current and prior year and acquisitions. For dmg information, underlying growth includes the year-on-year organic growth from acquisitions. For dmg events, the comparisons are between events held in the year and the same events held the previous time. For Euromoney, no adjustments are made for the timing of events but acquisitions are excluded completely. For dmg media, underlying comparisons exclude Villarenters, Metro Play and Evenbase, which were disposed of last year and this year, and distribution services revenue, which ceased last year. dmg media's underlying revenue growth includes the year-on-year organic growth from acquisitions and underlying revenues only include the profit but not the gross-up, equivalent to the cost of sales, from low margin newsprint resale activities.

† DMGT Group and B2B reported and underlying growth rates include Euromoney. Euromoney does not disclose the performance of its business for the five months to 28 February 2015 but instead, in its trading update released earlier today, comments on the expected performance for the six months to 31 March 2015. Euromoney does not adjust for the timing of events when calculating underlying growth rates. If adjustments were made to compare Euromoney's events held in the year to the same events held the previous time, the underlying growth for the five month period would be +1% for DMGT Group and +4% for DMGT's B2B businesses.

~ dmg media's results are to Sunday 22 February 2015 and are compared to the same twenty one week period of the prior year.

* Daily Mail 23.2%, a record level since ABC figures were first compiled in 1932, compared to 22.7% last year and The Mail on Sunday 21.8%, compared to 21.5% last year. Circulation market share figures are calculated using ABC's February 2014 and February 2015 National Newspapers Reports and excluding digital subscribers.

The cancellation of 2,576,167 'A' Ordinary Shares currently held in Treasury is expected to take place today, 26 March 2015. As at the end of 25 March 2015 and prior to the cancellation of shares, there were 7,844,867 'A' Ordinary Shares held in Treasury. There are also 2,669,314 'A' Ordinary Shares held by the DMGT Employee Benefit Trust. Following the cancellation of shares and including shares held in Treasury and by the DMGT Employee Benefit Trust there will be 348,452,768 'A' Ordinary Shares in issue. There are also 19,890,364 Ordinary Shares in issue, which are held by Rothermere Continuation Limited.

The average £:$ exchange rate for the five months was £1:$1.56 (against £1:$1.63 in the same period last year).

This trading update is prepared for and addressed only to the Company's shareholders as a whole and to no other person. The Company, its Directors, employees, agents and advisers accept and assume no liability to any person in respect of this trading update save as would arise under English law. Statements contained in this trading update are based on the knowledge and information available to the Group's Directors at the date it was prepared and therefore facts stated and views expressed may change after that date.

This document and any materials distributed in connection with it may include forward-looking statements, beliefs, opinions or statements concerning risks and uncertainties, including statements with respect to the Group's business, financial condition and results of operations. Those statements and statements which contain the words "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "expect" and words of similar meaning, reflect the Group's Directors'beliefs and expectations and involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future and which may cause results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by those statements and forecasts. No representation is made that any of those statements or forecasts will come to pass or that any forecast results will be achieved. You are cautioned not to place any reliance on such statements or forecasts. Those forward-looking and other statements speak only as at the date of this trading update. The Groupundertakes no obligation to release any update of, or revisions to, any forward-looking statements, opinions (which are subject to change without notice) or any other information or statement contained in this trading update.Furthermore, past performance of the Group cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance.

No statement in this document is intended as a profit forecast or a profit estimate and no statement in this document should be interpreted to mean that earnings per DMGT share for the current or future financial years would necessarily match or exceed the historical published earnings per DMGT share.

Nothing in this document is intended to constitute an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity. This document does not constitute or form part of any offer for sale or subscription of, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for, any securities nor shall it or any part of it nor the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract, commitment or investment decision in relation thereto. This document does not constitute a recommendation regarding any securities.

Daily Mail and General Trust plc

Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street,

London, W8 5TT

www.dmgt.com

Registered in England and Wales No. 184594