Job: chief executive, Trinity Mirror
Age: 44
Industry: publishing
Circulation: Daily Mirror 1,653,431 Jan-June 2006 (down 4.9% year on year); Sunday Mirror 1,463,809 (down 5%); People 852,399 (down 10.9%)
Turnover: £1.1bn
Staff: 11.065
Salary: £991,000 (including £371,000 bonuses and benefits)
2005 ranking: 32
It's been another tough year at Sly Bailey's Trinity Mirror group. The circulation of its three flagship titles continues to decline, and advertising revenue has tumbled at its national and 250-strong regional newspaper base.
Bailey's response was to cut costs - around 400 jobs have been axed from the 11,000-strong workforce since November - and go shopping. Trinity Mirror spent nearly £100m on four classified websites last year, led by the acquisition of recruitment service Hotgroup.
Bailey says predictions of the demise of the Daily Mirror are premature. "We have no plans to roll over and die - quite the opposite," she said in May.
"2005 was a good year for the Daily Mirror - a year it regained readability, credibility and, most importantly, stability. Under the deft editorship [of Richard Wallace], the paper has returned to its roots."
But critics say Bailey's cost-cutting, which began when she became chief executive three years ago, is contributing to an "inevitable cycle" of circulation decline at the group's newspapers.
Speculation over a possible sale of the group's national titles is nothing new, but gained ground this year with the departure of chairman Sir Victor Blank in May. He was succeeded by Sir Ian Gibson.
Trinity Mirror's like-for-like revenues fell 1.3% to £1.1bn last year, but pre-tax profits rose 6% to £220.9m. The group expects 20% of its recruitment advertising revenues - which account for 10% of total group turnover - to come from its online operations over the next two years.
"It has been a tough year but Trinity Mirror is still a big group," was the verdict of one of our panellists. "With 250 regional titles, it is the biggest regional newspaper group in the UK."
As well as the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People, the group owns the Racing Post and regional titles including the Liverpool Echo, Birmingham Post, Newcastle Evening Chronicle and Western Mail. It also owns more than 60 websites.
Bailey joined Trinity Mirror in 2003 from magazine publisher IPC, where she spent 13 years and rose to become chief executive. She was part of the team that undertook a management buyout of the company in 1998 before its subsequent sale to AOL Time Warner. The deal is likely to have made her millions.
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