Daily Record owner Reach has announced that restructuring of its operations will cost about £20 million with the creation of new roles and some staff leaving the company.
In a trading update the publisher of a range of national and local titles, including the Mirror, Express and Manchester Evening News, said revenue from newspaper sales fell 3.4% over nine months, and advertising revenue plunged 14.7%, contributing to a 3.1% decline in group revenue.
Digital revenue in the third quarter grew 2.1% and by 1.9% over nine months. Digital referrals fell, particularly from Google, a trend reported by the industry as a result of artificial intelligence overview.
As a result, page views, a measure of on-platform audience volumes, fell 1% over the nine-month period.
Reach said it had restructured the group to align with its three key priorities to accelerate growth.
“As part of this we have created new roles and teams which will focus on increasing our video production, developing new commercial propositions, and driving growth in off-platform audiences. We will also see some people leaving the business. The full year restructuring cost is estimated to be c.£20m.”
The company said it remains confident about its future. Profit expectations are underpinned by the resilient print performance and disciplined cost management, and the company is on track to deliver its 4-5% cost saving target.
It expects full year digital revenues to be broadly flat on the prior year, reflecting the ongoing volatility in referral volumes and weak macroeconomic backdrop.
Piers North, chief executive, said: “We delivered a good financial performance despite continued volatility in referral volume and we made strong progress across our strategic priorities; including the creation of new video teams in the newsrooms, new video launches such as the Daily Expresso and All Out Football, and an increase in branded video revenue.
“We also delivered continued success in our diversified revenues including the OK! Beauty Box and are now working at pace on further initiatives, launching our digital subscriptions pilot in the coming weeks.”
A consensus of analyst expectations, compiled by the company, is for adjusted operating profit of £99.1m for the full year.
Reach will published full year results on 3 March.
National World withdraws from ABC registration
Circulation figures for National World’s 200+ titles, including The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post, will no longer be published via the ABC print register.
National World, the successor company to JPIMedia, was taken over earlier this year by Media Concierge, owned by Mediaforce boss Malcolm Denmark.
The latest figures published last month showed The Scotsman now sells just 6,242 copies a day, down 12% year-on-year, and only three regional daily newspapers in the UK, none of which are based in England, now sell more than 10,000 copies.
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