Reach struggles with regional business

After cutting the value of its regional publishing operations, Reach – formally Trinity Mirror – has reported a pre-tax half-year loss of £113m.

Citing a “challenging outlook” the publisher wrote down the value of its 200-plus regional titles by £150m.

Meanwhile, the company saw group revenues rise by 10.6% to £353.8m following the acquisition of the Express and Star, but fell by 7.2% on a like-for-like basis.

Reach publishes national and regional titles including the Daily Mirror, Manchester Evening News, the Liverpool Echo and OK! Magazine.

The £113.5m pre-tax loss for the first half of the year compares with a profit of £38.2m for the same period in 2017.

Adjusted pre-tax profit rose £3.4m to £64.7m.

Chief executive Simon Fox said the company was on track to deliver £20m in savings by integrating the Express and Star titles. However, it needed to boost its digital revenues to offset the decline in print.

“We have delivered a positive financial performance in what remains a difficult trading environment for the industry, in particular the regional businesses,” said Fox.

“The benefit of improved performance from national print advertising coupled with further cost mitigation will support profits over the year despite a further increase in newsprint prices for the second half.”