The owner of the Daily Mirror has boosted its cost savings to £20m this year as tough trading conditions continue to hammer newspaper publishers.
Trinity Mirror said that the trading environment has “remained challenging” and the business is focusing on shoring up the print decline by boosting digital revenues and “making efficiencies”, or cost cuts.
The company said that it has hit £20m in structural cost savings for the year, up from an initial target of £15m.
The company, which also publishes regional newspapers including the Manchester Evening News and Liverpool Echo, said print advertising revenues fell by 21% and newspaper sales revenues dropped by 6% in the third quarter.
Total revenues fell by 9% in the third quarter, slightly more than the 8% drop reported in the first half of the year.
The company said publishing revenue is down 10%; within this total print revenues fell 12% while digital climbed by 11%. Digital display advertising and transactional revenues grew by 24% as the company’s online audience increased.
“Although the trading environment has remained challenging during the third quarter of the year, our continued focus on growing digital revenue and driving efficiencies, provides the board with confidence that profit for the year will be in line with market expectations,” the company said.
On Thursday, Daily Mail & General Trust, owner of the Daily Mail, Mail Online and Metro, revealed that it would make more than 400 job cuts this year.
DMGT said that print advertising fell by 19% in September compared with 12% in the 11 months to the end of August.
