12 Dec 2002 | The Media Leader Staff

Trinity Mirror Ad Revenues Pick Up In Q4

Third quarter advertising revenues fell by 2.5% at Trinity Mirror, publisher of the Mirror titles and a raft of regional newspapers. However, there has been some improvement in the first two months of Q4, with a slight growth of 0.3%, the group said in a pre-close trading statement this morning.

There is currently a north/south divide in the ad markets; London, the south-east and the West Midlands have generally been weaker than other regions, although there are now some signs of improvement in these weaker markets.

National advertising Ad revenues at the English nationals were up 0.5% in Q3, whilst October fell by 1.7%. November rose by 5.7% and December is expected to be stronger than November, according to Merrill Lynch analysts, who are forecasting a FY2003 growth of 2.5%.

In Scotland, Q3 revenue was down by 0.1%, with improvements emerging throughout Q4.

Regional advertising The group says that there have been encouraging signs of advertising growth for the regional newspapers over the past two months, with a small improvement over October and November expected in December.

Second half revenues were down by around 1.0%, with Q3 down by 2.4%, again returning to growth in the final quarter months of October, November and December, as comparables become easier.

Overall circulation revenues are down 1.5% in the period July to November with volume decreases partially offset by cover price increases.

Trinity Mirror yesterday announced that Sly Bailey, currently chief executive of magazine group IPC Media, is to take up the same position at Trinity, replacing Philip Graf, who is due to step down early next year (see Bailey Leaves IPC To Replace Graf At Trinity Mirror).

Shares in Trinity Mirror were down 5.5p at 412p by mid-morning today.