Newspaper publisher Trinity posts 13% profits hike

Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror overcame a difficult advertising market to post a 13% rise in half-year profits today.

The owner of 240 local, regional and national titles said it had “stabilised and revitalised” the business, although it also warned that tough trading conditions were likely to continue over the rest of the year.

Revenues rose 1.2% to £579.3m (€839.2m) in the six months to July 3 while recent restructuring and cost saving initiatives helped profits before one-off items to £112.5m (€163m), up from £99.5m (€144m).

Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey said: “We have delivered a satisfactory performance, despite the current trading environment.

“I believe that this demonstrates that we have stabilised and revitalised the business to achieve sustainable improvements in performance. Having stabilised the core business, we remain fully focused on growth.”

The nationals division, which saw revenues fall by 0.9% and operating profits rise by 5.9% to £42.9m (€62.1m), reported an improvement in year-on-year circulation trends at the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror in recent months.

The six-monthly volume market share for the Daily Mirror fell by 0.2% to 19.3% during the period, but the volume declines of 3.6% and 5% in May and June respectively were better than the 9.4% fall seen in the first qarter.

The regionals division achieved revenues growth of 2.6% to £277.3m (€401.7m), helping operating profits to improve by 6.6% to £78.8m (€114.1m).

The division achieved growth in advertising revenues of 4% for January to April, but this became a fall of 3.3% in May and June. Recruitment has been the hardest hit of the advertising sectors, although only three of the division’s regions failed to achieve growth in advertising business.

Looking across all of its operations, Trinity said: “The advertising market has remained difficult since March and reflects the general slowdown in the UK economy since the beginning of the year.

“Management are running the business on the assumption that the difficult trading environment will continue for the remainder of the year.”

As well as the Mirror titles, the company publishes the Daily Record and Sunday Mail in Scotland and regional titles including the Liverpool Echo and the Birmingham Evening Mail.