National Magazines, the publisher of titles including Esquire and Cosmopolitan, made a pre-tax loss of £42.8m last year compared with a profit of £10.8m in 2007, according to papers filed at Companies House.

NatMags, a wholly owned subsidiary of the privately held Hearst Corporation of the US, wrote down £55.7m ($91.4m) in impairments, including £51.7m in goodwill, although the filings did not specify which brands were written down or by how much.