In its half-year results to 30 June, CEO Jim Mullen described the media group’s overall results as “solid” despite a fall in sales, and said the business was optimising its digital and print assets.

Overall revenues fell 5.2% to £265m. Adjusted operating profit increased by 23% to £44.5m, with the corresponding margins up from 12.9% to 16.8%.

Print circulation was down 3.6% and print advertising fell by 11.5%, but Reach said both outperformed structural volume decline of 17%.

Overall print revenues were down by £13.3m to £204m.

Cover price increases and special one-off products – including for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and the recent Euro 20204 football championship – helped to support print revenues.

Mullen said the business continued to “expertly manage print performance”.

Newsprint costs of £22.2m were down £11.2m due to a combination of reduced volumes and lower prices.

“Longer-term supply contracts have been negotiated to provide more stability and locked-in some of these savings,” CFO Darren Fisher noted.

Contract printing revenue was down 15.2% at £8.8m, reflecting “the external market demand for print”.

Digital revenues also slipped, from £60.8m to £60m, but within that data-driven sales grew by 9% to £27.2m.

Page view volumes were down 25%, but despite this Reach said: “Trends are improving and open market prices for mass scale programmatic advertising have stabilised.”

Mullen said the group was on track to meet market expectations for the full year, despite a backdrop involving “the dominant tech platforms and their impact on search and referral traffic”.

He said the group was building more resilience to this through its Customer Value Strategy.

Reach’s share price nudged up by 1.54% to 105.40p on the news (52-week high: 112.80p, low: 58.47p).