Trinity Mirror recruitment ads down from £150m to £20m
The ongoing Leveson inquiry is best known for its focus on alleged phone hacking but in the process it is shining lights into a number of corners of the U.K. newspaper industry.
One of the latest revelations is the scale of losses of recruitment advertising, exposed when Sly Bailey, the chief executive of Trinity Mirror told the inquiry that;
“As we’ve seen a worsening of the economy pretty much since 2007, the category that’s been hit hardest, which is our highest yielding category, which really supports our news-gathering activities… is recruitment advertising….at the peak, we had around £150m recruitment advertising supporting our titles, and last year we had less than 20.”
Bailey cited the growth of new platforms as well as the economic climate for that eye-popping fall in revenue.
Trinity Mirror takes full control of Fish4
Trinity Mirror has bought out partner Newsquest to establish total control of the Fish4 network of car, job, careers and property portals.
Fish4 started life as a joint venture between five regional newspaper publishers looking to joint forces in the threat of online classifieds.
The original line up of newspaper publishers (of which Trinity was one) was whittled down as Northcliffe left the partnership in 2007 to launch Jobsite, FindAProperty.com and motors.co.uk. Another, Regional Independent Media was bought by Johnston which in turn decided to use Jobsite as its recruitment platform. The fourth partner, GMG Regional Media, was bought by Trinity and that left only Newsquest. Now Trinity Mirror is the sole owner.
David Black, Trinity Mirror’s Group Director of Digital Publishing comments of the deal that: “Fish4 is an excellent addition to our digital portfolio. The acquisition demonstrates continued progress with our strategy of building a growing digital business of scale, and increasing our share of the online recruitment market.”
To which Paul Halliwell, Managing Director of Trinity Mirror digital recruitment and property adds that: “Fish4 is a strong brand, to which we will add considerable value for advertisers and consumers alike through our digital recruitment and classifieds expertise.”
New management in works for Trinity Mirror digital regionals
Trinity Mirror, which publishes the Local Mole regional business websites, looks set to up the ante with a new management structure.
Trinity Mirror Regionals said it was strengthening its digital-management team with the creation of two new senior roles: digital commercial director and Local Mole general manager.
When hired, both executives will report directly to David Black, the group director of digital publishing. All of which apparently makes the current role of regionals digital director redundant, which means the current incumbent in that role, Chris Bunyan, is negotiating his future with the company.
Trinity Mirror revenue down 16.9 percent
The U.K.’s Trinity Mirror, which owns the Daily Mirror and more than 140 regional newspapers, said that total group revenues fell by 16.9 percent in the first half of the year to £383 million in the 26 weeks to 28 June.
Within this, total ad revenue fell 28 percent to £168.4 million and circulation revenues were down 4.2 percent to £169.8 million.
Ad revenue fell 34.5 percent at its regional newspaper division and 14.4 percent at its national titles in the first six months of 2009.
The company’s operating profit fell by 31.4 percent to £49 million, while pre-tax profits dropped 39.5 percent to £31.3 million.
Trinity Mirror said that it had shut 22 titles since the start of the year and cut 900 jobs – bringing headcount reduction to 1,800 in the last 18 months.
However, the company also announced yesterday that it is planning to launch 3am.co.uk, a Web spin-off of the Daily Mirror’s showbiz column alter this year.
Total digital revenues across the regional operation declined by 16.9 percent to £16.2 million
Trinity Mirror’s regional division reported that total revenue was down 28.2% year on year to £155.4m. Ad revenue across the division fell 34.5% for the period, to £104m, with circulation revenues slipping 8.1% to £36.5m.
Display advertising was down by 21.5%, recruitment by 50%, property by 52.5% and automotive by 34.4%.
Revolution in U.K’s regionals?
Trinity Mirror, one of the largest U.K. regional newspaper publishers, has launched LocalMole.co.uk in an attempt to shore up local sites against the intrusion of classified providers such as Thomson Local and Yell.
“In the next year you will start to see a revolution in the (advertising packages) regional newspapers sell online” promises Chris Bunyan, the digital director of Trinity Mirror Regionals.
As well as extensive (33 percent less) price cutting for listings as compared to Yell and Thomson Local LocalMole.co.uk aims to capitalize on the publisher’s wide range of existing newspaper Web sites as well as related social networking sites on Facebook, Bebo, and My Space.
According to Trinity Mirror customers will be able to list information on companies as text links across pages and content in different Trinity websites in the manner of Google AdWords.
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