The following statement will be provided to shareholders by the
Chairman of Trinity Mirror plc, Sir Victor Blank, at today's Annual General
Meeting:
On a like-for-like basis excluding acquisitions, Group
advertising revenue for the first four months decreased by 11.8%. This
represents decreases of 13.9% for January, 13.0% for February and 10.2% for
March and April. March and April have been combined to eliminate the distortion
created by Easter being in March in 2005 and April in 2006. Including
acquisitions Group advertising revenue for the first four months decreased by
9.6%.
For our Regionals division like-for-like advertising revenues
decreased by 10.4% with declines in all categories other than property,
particularly recruitment advertising which fell by 22.6% and motors which fell
12.9%. The Nationals division advertising revenues fell by 14.1% with a 15.7%
decline for the UK Nationals and a 9.6% decline for our Scottish
Nationals.
Group circulation revenues for the first four months were in
line with 2005. Circulation revenues for our Regional titles and UK National
titles increased by 2.4% and 0.7% respectively with cover price increases
offsetting circulation volume declines. However, circulation revenues for our
Scottish National titles fell by 4.2% reflecting the impact of vouchering
activity for the Daily Record in response to price cutting by competitors in the
Scottish marketplace.
As we indicated at the Group's preliminary results announcement
on 2 March 2006 the difficult advertising market conditions experienced in 2005
have continued into 2006. Whilst comparatives will ease as the year progresses
management continues to run the business on the assumption that the advertising
environment will remain very challenging.
