Overall revenues at Trinity Mirror fell by 9pc during the first half of 2017 compared with last year despite digital growth of 5pc.
The national and regional publisher issued a trading update this morning ahead of its interim results due to be published in a month’s time.
It showed print advertising revenue down by 21pc year-on-year in the six months to the end of June while circulation growth fell by 6pc.
Digital revenues grew by 5pc, with digital display and transactional revenues up 18pc, partially offsetting a 12pc dfecline in print publishing revenue.
The relative fall in advertising revenue compared to the previous year was partially put down to a strong performance during the second quarter of 2016 which coincided with the European football chammpionships.
The six-month period has also seen the group secure a five year print and distribution contract for the Guardian and Observer newspapers from early 2018 following their decision to move from Berliner to tabloid format.
The group said: “Although the trading environment remains challenging, at this stage, the Board anticipates that our interim and full year results* will be in line with our expectations.
“We continue to make progress with our strategy of growing digital display and transactional revenue whilst at the same time tightly anaging our cost base to support profits and cash flow with net debt falling in the period.
Chief executive Simon Fox added: “The trading environment for print in the first half remained volatile but we remain on course to meet our expectations for the year.
“I anticipate that the second half will show improving revenue momentum as we benefit from initiatives implemented during the first half of the year.”
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Digital growth up 5%, means nothing without TM giving figures. Could be a 0.02% growth of the overall profit for all we know.
I did read the phone hacking is likely to now cost them £7.5m, thats a big chunk of profit.
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For print ad revenues to be 21% down y/y on the back of a continuing trend of under performances a year ago is staggering and must cause alarm bells to ring loud and long as to the future viability of certain parts of the business.
As newspapers sell themselves on the quality of the content it seem appropriate at this time for TM to be conducting a commercial review to identify the under performing individuals and departments and taking action, as opposed to the usual route of simply axing more editorial staff to cut overheads and save costs.
Going by the extent of this latest devastating loss of ad revenue in just 6 months of the year so far the decision to review the whole commercial ad departments effectiveness is timely
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As so many hacks have been discarded on the altar of digital riches maybe it is time for a tough look at advertising staff and bosses.
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There’s a full commercial review going on currently paperboy but whether it will actually see any ad reps or some of the many mangers leaving rather than just be sideways moved as usual, remains to be seen
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What goes on the web, less all the junk that’s only suitable for the circular firing-squad we call Facebook, is what goes in the papers.
There’s your answer as far as falling circulations go.
That and the Tory wraps, from what I’ve heard.
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