Dods, the publisher of PoliticsHome, Total Politics and House Magazine has posted its fourth successive year of losses. It is now losing £30,000-a-week or a total of £1.5 million last year, bringing the total losses since Lord Ashcroft took control up to £12 million, about as much as he paid for his controlling share. Subsidiary Dods Parliamentary Communications Limited, which holds the non-print publications and is the online future of the firm, managed to lose £1,624,282. Unsurprisingly the share price is down another 25% on the year and some 75% since Ashcroft bought his shareholding…

For years the business has claimed that whereas the political blogs have scale and a greater reach, their publications such as the House Magazine were read by more MPs – the target market for lobbyists and advertisers who pay Dods to help them engage with MPs.  Survey after survey shows that this is no longer the case. According to independent research more Labour MPs read LabourList, more Tory MPs read ConservativeHome and LibDemVoice is read by most LibDem MPs. Overall more MPs read Guido than the House Magazine, which often goes unread straight into the wastepaper basket…