Lord Hollick's United Business Media has reported a drastic slump in profits after its operations suffered a torrid six months at the hands of the US economy.
United added trading conditions were so bad it had abandoned all hope of a recovery for the rest of the year as its profits dived by £55m.
In a bid to cut costs, the group said it had axed 700 jobs, or 9% of its workforce.
The former owner of Express Newspapers and the Meridian ITV franchise has transformed itself into a hi-tech business publishing, market research and news distribution group but its reliance on the US for revenues has torn a hole in its first half results.
United said revenues for the six months of the year were £489m, down from £510m for the same period last year, while pre-tax profits tumbled from £62.2m to £6.9m.
Lord Hollick was frank in his assessment of the US market, which generates more than 60% of the group's revenues.
"Trading conditions in the first six months of the year have been extremely tough with weakness in the technology market exacerbated by a deteriorating trading environment in the US," he said.
The collapse of the US technology market has hurt advertising revenues at United's CMP business magazine division, which houses titles such as Information Week, Internet Week and Dr Dobb's Journal, a software magazine.
And the retreat of stock markets across the Atlantic has reduced the amount of market news released by United's PR Newswire service.
"Current market conditions remain very challenging and our planning assumption is that there will be no upturn in the US this year," he said.
The only part of United's business to show an upturn was its NOP World market research arm, which boosted revenues from £66m last year to £76m, thanks to strong demand for research from the healthcare and car industries.
No mention was made of United's 35% stake in RTL, which has been valued at around £300m but would not fetch a premium price in the current market conditions.
Analysts warned United shares are likely to come under more pressure following the results, but added it remains a very strong competitor in its markets and will reap the benefits when there is a recovery in the US technology sector around the middle of next year.
United Business Media changed its name from United News & Media last year following the sale of its ITV franchises and Express Newspapers.
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