United Pleased With Express

Speaking at the annual general meeting of United News & Media Lord Steven of Ludgate, the company’s chairman, said that he was “pleased to report that the Express is making good progress” with its redesign being “well received by readers.”

He announced that circulation of the titles has now stabilised and weekday sales have exceeded the second half of last year in each of the first four months of 1997. He also said that trading in the year to date had been in line with expectations with revenues showing satisfactory growth.

The group is also pleased with the performance of Channel 5 and the support it has received from advertisers, as well as its two recent ITV productions – Touching Evil and Where the Heart Is which have both performed well in the ratings.

It was also announced that Richard Hooper, a non-executive director of MAI and subsequently of United since 1993, would be retiring after the AGM.

As the graph below shows, the daily Express appears to have turned its long-term decline around, though it is perhaps slightly over-optimistic to say that the Express on Sunday‘s sales have “stabilised”.

Source: ABC

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