Trinity claims 9% fall in revenue is improvement

MANCHESTER Evening News and Liverpool Echo publisher Trinity Mirror has tried to spin latest performance figures claiming a 9% fall in revenues represents an improvement for the business.

In a trading update for the 13 weeks to September 27, 2015, the Trinity Mirror board said while the trading environment remained “volatile” revenue trends over the period were better than those seen in the previous quarter.

The company has also indicated how the digital side of the operation is outstripping the traditional print side of the business.

It said: “Whilst the trading environment remains volatile, revenue trends have seen some improvement in the third quarter with revenue falling by 9% against a 13% decline in the second quarter (13 weeks to June 28, 2015).

“Underlying revenue fell by 7% in the third quarter compared to the 10% decline in the second quarter. On an underlying basis Publishing revenue fell by 6% with print declining by 8% and digital growing by 24%.”

It said it continued to deliver strong growth to its digital audience with average monthly unique users and page views growing by 31% and 48% respectively in Q3. Publishing digital revenue grew by 24% with Publishing digital display advertising revenue growing by 33%.
 
“We have seen an improvement in trends with underlying circulation and print advertising revenue for the publishing division falling by 5% and 16% respectively in the third quarter. This compares to underlying declines in circulation and print advertising revenues of 5% and 23% respectively in the second quarter,” it added.
 
It concluded that good progress was being made towards its strategic initiatives and the business continued to deliver strong cash flows. It also remains on track to deliver structural cost savings of £20m for the year.  

Overall, the board said it continued to expect performance for the year to be in line with expectations.

The statement also said that on August 10, the subsidiary MGN Ltd had been granted permission to appeal the judgment handed down on May 21, 2015 by Mr Justice Mann in relation to civil claims relating to phone hacking.

“We can now confirm that the appeal, which has been expedited, will be heard over two days during the week commencing October 19, 2015. At this stage we cannot be specific on the timing of the outcome of the appeal,” it said.

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