GROUP advertising revenues have climbed year-on-year at newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror but the market remains “volatile” the company said today.
In an interim management statement for the 17 weeks ended October 31, 2010, the company’s group advertising revenue climbed 13%, total group revenue was up 4% but circulation income fell by 4%.
Trinity Mirror publishes the Birmingham Post, the Birmingham Mail, Coventry Telegraph, Sunday Mercury and a host of other weekly titles across the West Midlands along with Daily and Sunday Mirror and The People.
These figures include revenues from GMG Regional Media which Trinity Mirror bought earlier this year.
Excluding GMG Regional Media, group revenue was down 5.4% for the period, group advertising revenue fell by 4.6% and group circulation revenue dropped by 6.7% for the period.
In Trinity Mirror’s regionals division, advertising revenues grew by 21.4% for the period which reflected the benefit of the acquisition of GMG Regional Media, it said.
On an adjusted basis, the regionals division advertising revenues fell by 6.7% for the period.
The statement said: “Trading since the half year has remained volatile due to the fragile economic environment and the uncertainty resulting from the Government spending review.
“Whilst September advertising revenues were below recent trends the board is encouraged by an improvement in the rate of advertising revenue decline in October to 2% (excluding the acquisition of GMG Regional Media).
“The group continues to benefit from ongoing management initiatives which drive efficiencies through the re-engineering of core business processes.
“As a result, the group remains on track to deliver structural cost savings of £25m with the absolute cost base falling by circa £60m for the full year.”
The company said it remained cash generative and its net debt had fallen by a further £20m to £288m since the half year with further reductions in debt expected.
