Growth across Trinity Mirror has slowed down as the year has progressed, the company has revealed.

It warned there was no sign of a return to the strong advertising performance at the start of the year, as figures for the 26 weeks to July 1, the second half of which had seen a "volatile" advertising market, were released.

A company statement said: "Current trading conditions remain volatile with very limited visibility and no signs of a return to the level of advertising revenue growth that was seen in the earlier part of the year.

"Cost reduction measures are being applied throughout the group to mitigate partially the effect a continuation of the current trend would have on the level of profitability for the year."

Advertising revenue growth across the regional newspapers for the 26 week period is forecast at 4.5 per cent.

The strong first quarter was offset by a weaker second quarter, with an estimated rwo per cent increase from April to June, driven mostly by recruitment advertising, estimated to have grown by 17 per cent in the 26 week period. The first three months of the year saw growth in excess of 20 per cent, which has since eased off to 13 per cent in June.

Advertising revenue for the UK national titles has grown by nearly two per cent overall but there has been an estimated decline of four per cent in the period from April to June.

The board is in the process of initiating a number of long-term profit enhancing plans across the group to strengthen its core businesses.

The group's titles include the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post, the Birmingham Post and Evening Mail, and the Daily Record and the Sunday Mail in Scotland.

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