Trinity Sees Tough Ad Conditions In The South

The group’s chairman Sir Victor Blank told the company’s AGM that ‘circulation revenue has provided an underlying stable base for the company against a background of an advertising market that, for the first four months of this year, has remained tough.’

Advertising revenues Regional papers appear to be showing an improvement, with revenues down 2.8% for the first four months, although performance is much weaker in London and the south east than in the rest of the country. In the south regional revenues were down by 13.3% over the period, whilst the rest of the country showed growth of 1.5%.

Display advertising at Trinity’s national newspapers has continued to be extremely volatile and weak throughout this period, resulting in a decline in advertising revenue of 12.7%.

Outlook The directors of Trinity Mirror say that it is currently prudent to plan on the current advertising conditions remaining throughout most of the year.

Shares in Trinity were down 9p at 466½p by midday today.