Trinity continues cost-cutting as Mirror moves to 7 day operation
Trinity Mirror has announced that the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror are to move to a seven day publishing model.
As a result, the roles of Daily Mirror editor and Sunday Mirror editor have been made redundant, which means Richard Wallace (pictured) and Tina Weaver will leave the company with immediate effect.
In a statement, Mark Hollinshead, managing director, Nationals, said: “Today’s announcement represents an important step change in meeting the needs of a multi-media publishing environment. The next 12 months will be transformational for our business as we continue to grow our online audience, maximise audience delivery on mobile and launch new e-editions for tablet devices in addition to further developing our newspapers.
“I’m delighted to appoint Lloyd [Embley] to the position of editor of the Daily and Sunday Mirror. He is an accomplished editor who has done a first class job on improving the performance and profile of The People having spent several years on the Daily Mirror in a senior executive role.
“Both Richard and Tina leave with our best wishes for the future and our thanks for the extremely valuable contribution they have made to the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror during their tenure as respective editors.”
Paula Scott has also been appointed publishing director magazines and will continue to report to Hollinshead. Scott was previously business development director.
Hollinshead added: “At the core of our business the Daily Mirror is as strong as ever with year on year circulation trends, despite widespread cut price competition, out performing the market in 11 out of the last 12 months.”
In this month’s ABC release, for April 2012, Mirror Group Digital enjoyed a positive 13.2% increase in daily average unique browsers to 661,000. However, the brand’s online offering attracts the lowest number browsers of all the online national newspapers that are audited by ABC. The MailOnline, which tops the list, gains more than 5.6 million daily average unique browsers.
The changes come less than a month after Trinity Mirror’s Sly Bailey, chief executive, resigned amid a shareholder revolt about her £1.7 million pay package. She is expected to leave before the end of the year.
At a recent MediaTel Group event, the Future of National Newspapers, the panel discussed whether newspapers are “worse-off” run by PLCs. Raymond Snoddy, BBC presenter and Newsline columnist, said: “Sly was overpaid, especially when you look at the performance she oversaw. She never showed any real passion or intent to grow news and continually cuts costs to hit margin and profit targets.”
Meanwhile, Dominic Carter, commercial director at News International, who previously worked for Trinity Mirror Group (TMG) under Bailey, said: “Sly was in a difficult position. The business is hamstrung by being a PLC and at the mercy of recommendations from city analysts.” Carter added that “TMG is a difficult business” – it is very difficult to harness any potential between the regional and the national business for greater benefit.
In March, Trinity recorded a 40% fall in pre-tax profits to £74 million for 2011. At the time, the company said it expects advertising revenues to be down 12% year on year in Q1 2012. As a result, it announced plans to cut £15 million in costs.
Paper Boy said: “Trinity Mirror Group continue to do what they know best – cut costs. The seven day operation will mean a more efficient operation. It is something that has probably been on the mind of senior executives for some time. The catalyst for doing it now has been The Sun‘s move to seven day publishing. It is a watch and see scenario if TMG can really transform the business into a multi-media tablet and mobile business.”