Trinity Mirror’s regional titles are being harder hit by the economic downturn than their national counterparts according to figures published this morning.

Advertising revenues for the group’s regional titles fell by 36pc in the first 17 weeks of the year to 26 April compared to the same period last year, according to an interim management statement.

The figures compare with a 17pc fall in ad revenues in the group’s national division.

Meanwhile circulation revenues fell 8pc for the regionals and 3pc for the nationals, while digital revenues were down 14pc for the regionals and 11pc for the nationals.

Recruitment advertising revenues were the hardest-hit in the regionals division, down 50pc compared with the same period last year.

Many of Trinity’s regional titles are in major industrial centres such as the West Midlands and the North-East which have seen recently seen large-scale job losses in the steel and motor manufacturing industries.

The statement, issued ahead of today’s annual general meeting, said: “The economic slowdown continues to impact the Group and we remain cautious about the outlook.

“A combination of prudent cost reduction measures, the introduction of cutting edge IT systems driving new, more efficient ways of publishing, stable financing and relatively robust circulation revenue is, nevertheless, expected to deliver positive cash flow from our operations for 2009.”

Comments

Chris Youett (13/05/2009 14:17:48)
Trinity Mirror’s bosses should stop bleating and start marketing their titles properly – just like most other large businesses do.
This will include re-instating all the journalists they have fired but on professional rates of pay, turning evening papers back into real evening titles, charging the market rate cover price so they are less dependent on advertising, etc, etc.
Even the muppets who run Ford (probably the worst-run Fortune 1,000 company) would do better.

Grecian (13/05/2009 19:45:10)
“cutting edge IT” don’t make me laugh. I’ve seen more modern IT facilities in deprived primary schools.

JB (14/05/2009 16:16:53)
We all seem to be sitting around wondering where the hell the printed newspaper is heading. It could well be into the abyss, indeed if newspaper owners have their way thats exactly where print will end up.
So the internet is God and the digital age is upon us for real, only thing left to do now is just hope that computer geeks dont get it into their heads to hold newspapers and anyone else to ransom, the only virus you will get from newsprint is swine flu!