In 2014, Vocento continued to implement its strategy of maintaining the leadership of its brands, consolidating its profitability and protecting its solid financial position. Year after year this strategy has differentiated our company from our competitors in the media sector. Although the macroeconomic and sector context is still uncertain, there are growth indicators which give us some confidence for 2015.
Over the course of the year, we strengthened our operating and advertising performance, with revenues of 494.8 million euros, which reflected the divestment of some businesses and a more selective promotions policy at ABC and the regional press. Advertising revenues increased by 0.9% after six years of decline, with significant growth seen in the fourth quarter at ABC (1.1%) and the regional newspapers (5.5%). We also increased our online advertising revenues and our e-commerce activities, with the result that digital now contributes 25.2% of our total advertising revenues, 3.2 percentage points more than in 2013.
Comparable EBITDA in 2014 increased by 19.3% to 44.1 million euros, with the EBITDA margin improving by 1.9 p.p. to 8.9%. This performance reflects the improvement in advertising spend, the control of margins on circulation sales and promotions, the continuous policy of cost controls, and the reduction of debt by 15.7%, which improved our gearing to 2.9x from 4.9x in 2013.
An overview of the yearly performance of our business lines shows that we are successfully meeting our strategic targets, maintaining our leadership and improving the profitability and effectiveness of our offerings.
Vocento continued to be a leader in online as well as offline media in 2014, with 17 million unique monthly users.
The leadership and capacity for influence of our regional titles is one of our key strengths, while in the coming months ABC will be strengthened in the digital space, with a redesigned portal and improved understanding and analysis of its readership.
In 2015, the strategy of our publications will be focused on maintaining leadership and profitability. The steady development of the information industry will demand continuous investment from us in high quality content to differentiate titles and increase revenues.
In the audiovisual segment, Vocento is focused on profitable, niche television content, which reduces our exposure to the economic cycle. Our combined channels ended the year with an audience share of around 4%. In 2014, we restructured the audiovisual production area, with a major improvement in results, and this trend should continue in 2015.
In radio, we continued to benefit from the strategic agreement with COPE, which has strengthened our joint editorial line and helped us defend our shared values.
In the Classifieds area, we maintained our presence in the three key markets of automotive, employment and real estate, which represented 25.2% of our advertising and e-commerce revenues. Our well planned commercial strategy includes our discounts portal, Oferplan. In 2014, nearly one million discount vouchers were sold, a growth rate of 60% since launch. This area also includes the Guapabox portal, a subscription service that we launched in 2013 which now has 4,000 subscribers and 16,000 registered users.
In 2015, our focus in this area will be on developing the activity of each vertical sector. We will be working in particular on the B2B segment in order to enhance our customer base.
In 2014, we saw a change in trends and as a result 2015 promises real opportunities for growth. Vocento will seize these opportunities, based on our active commercial policies, increasing market share, new circulation strategies (in particular for the national press), and a continued commitment to the digital business.
Our financial strength and our consistent business strategy are competitive advantages for our group, in a media sector which will continue to undergo changes and to evolve towards more sustainable business models. Strengths such as the independence that comes from profitability and the leadership of our brands will continue to characterize Vocento as we move towards this future.
Luis Enríquez Nistal
