Murdoch rival closure lifts Trinity Mirror

Trinity Mirror said it benefited from the closure of the News of the World last month and was satisfied none of its senior executives had hacked phones or bribed police since 2000, lifting its shares. The British newspaper publisher said on Friday that group circulation revenues were up 2 percent in July following the closure of the rival tabloid, with national titles up 4 percent. First-half circulation revenues had fallen 5.4 percent.
"Our Sundays have had a great July," Chief Executive Sly Bailey told journalists on a conference call. The Sunday Mirror gained 64 percent in circulation between June and July, according to figures released by British media measurement organisation ABC on Friday, making it the most popular Sunday tabloid with a circulation of 1.8 million.
Shares in Trinity Mirror, which also reported first-half results in line with expectations and announced extra cost cuts, jumped almost 20 percent at one point, and by 1205 GMT were trading up 18.3 percent. "There is no real clarity on the outcome, if any, of the ongoing phone-hacking scandal and this may remain an overhang," wrote Panmure analyst Alex DeGroote. "However, there should be enough in the H1 statement/results to see a relief rally."
Trinity Mirror, whose titles include the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, also faces questions about its own newsgathering practices from court cases expected to be filed in the near future and a wide-ranging judge-led review of British media. It has launched its own review of its editorial controls and procedures, and said on Friday it had obtained written confirmation from its senior editorial executives that they had not engaged in phone-hacking or bribery.
On Friday, Trinity Mirror said circulation gains had helped slow the company's overall revenue decline to 3 percent in July from an underlying decline of 7 percent in the first half. Advertising revenue fell 11 percent in the first half and continued to fall at the same rate in July, with a 15 percent fall at the national titles and 9 percent at the regionals.
First half revenue, which included a contribution from the acquisition of Guardian Media Group's regional media business, was 371 million pounds, and operating profit fell 24 percent to 47 million pounds. Both were in line with expectations. Other rival Sunday tabloids also gained in circulation in July: The privately owned Daily Star Sunday gained the most with a 130 percent leap to 700,000; The People gained 70 percent to 810,000 and Trinity Mirror's Scottish Sunday Mail gained 14 percent to 410,000. Trinity Mirror said the economic environment was much weaker than it had anticipated, with public sector advertising down 24 percent in the first half of the year, and the impact of government cuts being felt across all advertising categories.