Trinity Mirror reports 19% fall in print advertising revenues

Trinity Mirror, owner of the Daily Mirror, reported print advertising revenues fell by 19 per cent in the first four months of this year.

The figures are yet more evidence of how the UK newspaper industry is being hit hard by a dramatic shift in advertising spending as more companies and brands switch their spending to online platforms like Google, Facebook and Snapchat.

While the publisher, which is also the UK’s biggest local newspaper group, said the trading environment was “challenging” it still anticipated its performance this year would be in line with market expectations.

Simon Fox, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, said:

Whilst the trading environment for print remains challenging we continue to make
progress on our strategic objectives. I am particularly pleased that we continue to see good growth in digital display and transactional revenue and tightly manage costs which gives confidence in our performance for the year.

In a trading update ahead of the company’s AGM on Thursday, the company added that overall group revenue fell by 9 per cent on a like for like basis.

Trinity said digital revenues grew by 6 per cent but digital classified advertising fell by 24 per cent.