Cuts pay off for Trinity Mirror as shares leap after difficult year
NEWSPAPER publisher Trinity Mirror saw shares rise 20 per cent yesterday as the company posted better than expected profits thanks to a cost-cutting operation, although it did warn of drops in advertising revenue at its national papers.
Advertising sales fell 10.5 per cent in the first half of the year and circulation revenue fell slightly on the same period last year, as the launch of the Sunday edition of the Sun hit the company’s Sunday Mirror and People newspapers in the second quarter of the year.
“You will see, particularly in our national titles, double-digit percentage declines in circulation revenues during the second half,” interim chief executive Vijay Vaghela said.
Total revenue was down four per cent to £356m but Trinity Mirror’s pre-tax profit was £35.1m, up from £28.9m the year before.
The results are a welcome boost for Trinity Mirror after a turbulent year that has seen its chief executive Sly Bailey step down after investor anger over her pay packet, as well as the editors of its Mirror newspapers removed. The publisher has undergone extensive spending cuts including turning its Mirror newsroom into a seven-day operation.