Trinity Mirror hit by 5pc sales drop
Trinity Mirror’s like for like sales fell five per cent in the four months to the end of October and the newspaper publisher and printer said the environment would remain challenging into 2011 due to economic uncertainty.
Excluding revenue from GMG Regional Media, which Trinity Mirror bought this year, advertising revenue fell five per cent and circulation revenue dropped seven per cent. However, the company said on it would still deliver a “robust” 2010 result.
“The board envisages that the trading environment will remain challenging over the remainder of the year and into 2011, however, it anticipates that the rate of decline in revenues will improve,” Trinity Mirror said in a statement.
The company said September sales had been below recent trends, newsprint costs were rising and the government’s announcement of large-scale public-spending cuts in October had added uncertainty to a fragile economic environment.
Including GMG Regional Media, the local-newspaper operations of the Guardian Media Group, sales rose 4 percent, with advertising revenue up 13 per cent.