Reach: Daily Mirror and Express publisher hikes guidance
Reach, the publisher of the Daily Mirror and Daily Express, has hiked its annual profit guidance despite a long-running battle with falling print revenue.
The London-listed firm said it expected to deliver results ahead of current market expectations following “strong” fourth quarter trading.
Analysts have estimated full-year profit will fall in the region of £97.8m in 2024, up from £96.5m the year prior.
Reach struggled last year amid a longstanding pattern of falling revenue and circulation in its print division.
In October, the group said it had seen a two per cent drop in circulation among its newspaper portfolio, while quarterly ad revenue fell 9.1 per cent year-on-year.
However, a cost cutting programme earlier in the year, which included job cuts, helped lift profit and shore up the bottom line despite the issues.
Shares have fallen over 30 per cent in the last six months.
Reach also said on Monday it had uncovered a historical due diligence error, which would result in £5m of additional funding for the West Ferry Printers Pension Scheme, which it inherited in the 2018 acquisition of Express Newspapers.
Last year’s redundancy rounds caused uproar among Reach employees, with some threatening strike action as hundreds of jobs were culled.