Digital revenue bolsters Post & Mail publisher

BIRMINGHAM Post and Mail publishing group, Trinity Mirror saw a 4% fall in revenue in January although the operation was boosted due to a 32% year-on-year rise in digital revenue from its publishing division.

The company said the performance was in line with management expectations but it was not changing its full year forecasts.

“Whilst we expect continued month on month volatility, at this early stage in the year we anticipate an improvement in trends as we progress through 2014,” it said.

“Although newsprint prices have increased for the first half of 2014, in addition to an increase in the second half of 2013, we expect further structural cost savings of £10m and ongoing cost mitigation actions to ensure that the group has adequate headroom for investment whilst supporting profits and cash flows.”

The announcement is the first since the company decided to abandon its Birmingham Post-based morning business bulletin for tablet computers and comes in the wake of its move to axe the Post’s equivalent newspaper in Liverpool.

Group revenue in November and December was down 1% year on year with growth of 2% in December, which it said was a significant improvement on the performance for the first 10 months of 2013 when revenue fell by 7%.

The digital revenue growth, coupled with growth in printing and other revenue substantially offset a marginal decline in circulation revenues and a much improved 3% decline in print advertising.

It said the “better than anticipated” revenue performance in the last two months of 2013 provided confidence that adjusted operating profit for 2013 would be ahead of market expectations by around 4%.

It added the benefit of reduced interest costs had contributed to expected adjusted earnings per share for 2013 being ahead of market expectations by around 5%.

Commenting on the announcement, Simon Fox, Chief Executive, Trinity Mirror, said: “I am pleased with the group’s performance for 2013, which is ahead of our expectations following a better than anticipated end to the year.

“The impairment charges are driven by technical accounting requirements. They do not relate to or impact the progress we are making with our strategy and I continue to believe that the business has significant long term potential.

“In the meantime trading for the start of 2014 is in line with our expectations.”