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LONDON (Alliance News) - British newspaper publisher Reach PLC on Monday reported 7% drop in like-for-like revenue for the third quarter of 2018 due to fall in revenue from circulation and publishing print advertising.
On a like-for-like basis, circulation and publishing print advertising revenue fell by 4% and 20%, respectively. Publishing digital revenue grew by 7% in the quarter with display and transactional revenue growing by 12%.
Total group revenue in the third quarter grew by 21% due to the company's recent acquisition of the Express & Star newspapers.
Reach, which was formerly called Trinity Mirror, said it remains on track to deliver savings of GBP2 million from the acquisition in 2018 and at least GBP20 million per annum by 2020.
In February, the company completed the acquisition of UK publishing assets of rival publishing company Northern & Shell, including the Daily Express, Sunday Express and Daily Star newspapers and OK! magazine for GBP126.7 million. Following the deal, Trinity Mirror rebranded itself as Reach.
"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," said Reach Chief Executive Simon Fox.
The market consensus range for adjusted pretax profit for the 52 weeks ended December 30 is GBP132.1 million to GBP133.9 million, according to Reach.
Reach posted a GBP113.5 million statutory pretax loss for the 26 weeks to July 1, compared to a GBP38.2 million profit in the same period a year earlier. The company booked a GBP150 million impairment charge on the value of its regional newspaper businesses in the first half.
Shares in Reach were down 2.6% at 63.88 pence each on Monday morning.
