Mirror owner logs revenue boost on back of Express and Star acquisition

Reach, the publisher of the Daily Mirror, has reported an increase in revenue, but saw advertising revenue decline.

Revenue was up 21% during the third quarter, reflecting the addition of the Express and Star titles, as well as OK! magazine.

But, excluding the acquisition, like-for-like revenue dropped by 7%.

Print advertising revenue declined by 20%, while circulation revenue was down 4%.

However the digital side of the business continued to grow, with publishing digital revenue up 7% and display and transactional revenue growing 12%.

The company acquired the collection of Express and Star titles for £200 million in February. It has since announced at least 70 job cuts and the closure of weekly celebrity magazine Star as part of a wider cost-saving programme.

Reach said on Monday that it remained on track to deliver integration savings of £2 million in 2018 and at least £20 million a year by 2020.

Chief executive Simon Fox said: “I am pleased with the progress being made on the integration of Express and Star and remain confident that we will deliver at least £20 million of annual synergy savings by 2020.

“Our continued focus on tightly managing costs and driving digital revenue continues to provide confidence that performance for the year will be in line with market expectations.”

The group also sold its email marketing business, The Communicator Corporation Limited, in September for £7.6 million.

In the first half of the year, Reach reported a £113.5 million statutory pre-tax loss, having logged profits of £38.2 million a year earlier.

It was hit by a £150 million impairment charge that was the result of a “more challenging than expected outlook” for its regional businesses, which have faced a slowdown in local advertising.