View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Data
  2. Audience Data
March 2, 2017

How digital growth is outpacing print decline at the big former Local World dailies bought by Trinity Mirror

By Dominic Ponsford

Trinity Mirror’s cutbacks across the Local World portfolio have at times seemed brutal.

Some £10m was cut from the Local World budget last year, with a further £15m to go this year, as Trinity has sought to recoup its £154m outlay from December 2015 on the 80 per cent of Local World it did not already own.

The transformation plan rolled out across the UK since then has seen Trinity make widespread redundancies, but also create a smaller number of new digital roles and take a digital-first approach to publishing.

The graphs below show that print declines at the Hull Daily Mail, Plymouth Herald, Leicester Mercury and South Wales Evening Post are shocking, and accelerating, but broadly in line with both the rest of the market and the long-term trend.

They also show that strong digital growth started under Local World has quickened over the last year and is outpacing print decline. So as far as web traffic goes, Trinity Mirror’s transformation plan for the former Local World titles is working.

The question for Trinity Mirrror, and the whole industry, is of course, how to turn that growing digital audience into a sustainable business model. Because for Trinity, and most other newspaper publishers, print revenue is falling faster than digital revenue is rising.

These graphs show print-circulation and average daily unique web browsers as measured by ABC.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Note: the most recent web figures quoted are for January 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

Topics in this article : ,

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network