Trinity Mirror hit by ad revenue fall
Trinity Mirror suffered a 10 per cent drop in advertising sales during the first four months of the year, as the newspaper publisher was hampered by difficult trading conditions.
The media group, which recently completed the acquisition of Guardian Media Group’s regional titles, said the trading environment remained challenging due to the fragile economy, public sector spending cuts and tax increases.
“These factors continue to adversely impact the key drivers of our business, such as consumer confidence, unemployment and the property market and are contributing to revenue declines,” the company said in a statement.
Rival publisher Johnston Press endured a worse start to 2011 than expected after government spending cuts hammered its advertising revenue, wiping a fifth off its market value.
Trinity Mirror, which owns the Daily Mirror, expects performance for the year to be in line with expectations and raised its cost savings target for the year to £15m from £5m.
In March, Trinity Mirror reported a 17 per cent rise in full-year operating profit, helped by cost savings after the acquisition of regional titles from GMG Regional Media.