AddThis SmartLayers

Revenues down 3pc at Trinity Mirror

Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror has reported a 3pc decline in revenues for the first 17 weeks of the year.

An interim management statement issued today covering trading up to 27 April reveals that while overall revenues fell 3pc, digital revenues were up by almost 50pc.

The figures showed print advertising revenues dropped 9pc while digital advertising revenues were up 47pc.

In common with usual practice for interim management statements, only percentage changes were given rather than the actual sums by which revenues have gone up or down.

The statement also showed the group on track to cut costs by £10m over the course of the year.

It said that continued strong cash generation had enabled net debt to be reduced by £26m to £71m.

The group also reported continued growth in digital audiences, with the number of unique users to its websites doubling year-on-year to 60m and page views in excess of 400m.

It said:  “Continued momentum on our strategic initiatives coupled with ongoing cost mitigation provides the Board with confidence that performance for 2014 is tracking in line with expectations.”

4 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • May 15, 2014 at 2:22 pm
    Permalink

    The missing ‘actuals’ relating to print/digital percentages of falls/rises are pretty crucial and will be interesting when they are revealed.

    Say, for instance, print revenues were previously £90m: a 9% fall would make them £81m. And if, again with made up figures, digital revenues were previously £10m: a 47% rise would make them £14.7m.

    In my example, what was 90:10 ratio of print to digital becomes 85:15 (the maths ain’t perfect, but you know what I mean).

    My point is: significant change, especially is repeated yearly ongoing; but print is still the massive figure, and therefore care still needs to be taken of and investments made in print brands (as well as investment in online).

    I’m sure Trinity and all other groups are doing that. Just saying.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • May 15, 2014 at 2:38 pm
    Permalink

    Hmm… 60m unique users (I’m sure that should be browers), must have a lot of ‘users’ outside the UK as TM’s total unique visitors on comScore (March 2014) is only 14.5 million (net desktop & mobile combined) – actually the total UK internet population for March 2014 was only 48million. But at least TM’s 14.5m this March is up on the 8.4m they had in March 2013 – that’s 72% growth.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • May 15, 2014 at 7:03 pm
    Permalink

    It’s called spin. They highlight the positives and play down the negatives. The percentages don’t reflect the continuing and worsening revenues which will be compensated by tge £10m cost saving. Soon the cupboard will be bare because digital revenues will never make up the print revenues shortfall. The card rate for digital won’t ever reach the frankly ridiculous rate for print, though the industry will argue that prices are dictated by the market. TM is just one of the victims of social media. Like many of the good people who put them together, newspapers are largely redundant.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • May 19, 2014 at 4:32 pm
    Permalink

    Even if digital revenues don’t match the print revenues it won’t matter as the overheads will be way down once there’s no need for actual print and ink.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)