Trinity Mirror, Britain's largest regional newspaper publisher, today reported slowing advertising growth in the second quarter, pushing its shares to their lowest level for five years.
A 4 per cent decline in second-quarter revenues at its national tabloids - the
Mirror
,
Sunday Mirror
and
Sunday People
- helped knock 8 per cent off the stock price.
"Current trading conditions remain volatile with very limited visibility and no signs of a return to the level of advertising growth that was seen in the earlier part of the year," the company said.
Advertising revenues have fallen sharply across almost all media as companies tighten purse strings in the cooling economy, hitting TV and radio particularly hard in recent months.
Ad revenues for the English national papers grew nearly 2 per cent in the first half but dropped by about 4 per cent over the April-June period, Trinity said in a statement.
Trinity Mirror said a series of cost cuts would be pushed through to mitigate the effect the trend would have on profits.
The company will publish first-half results on July 27th, accompanied by plans for boosting profits in the long term by developing the strength of its core businesses.