In a trading update released today (10 October), the company said its print circulation revenue has grown marginally, up by 0.4% over the first nine months of the year on a year-on-year basis, although in Q3 it was down 3.3% on the same period a year ago.
“This remains a resilient and predictable revenue stream as we actively mitigate the expected volume decline. Last September 2022 saw modest advertising activity following the Queen’s death, excluding this one-off factor the quarter would trend in line with the nine-month movement. Brands continue to value advertising to our substantial customer base,” Reach stated.
Print advertising revenue was down 15.7% in the first nine months of the year, and by 8.9% in Q3 compared to the same period last year.
Overall print revenue was down 3.8% for the first nine months of the year, and down by 5.8% year-on-year in Q3.
The factors affecting Q3 digital revenue at Reach were unchanged from those outlined in its half-year results, the publisher said.
Digital revenue was down 15.2% for the first nine months of the year, and down by 13.7% year-on-year in Q3.
The company noted its declining digital referral volumes, in particular from Facebook’s de-prioritisation of news. As a result, it said that over the nine-month period, year-on-year page views declined by 21%.
Data driven revenue, which is higher value and more targeted, now makes up a larger part of digital revenues at 42%. For the full-year 2019 this figure stood at 24%.
Group revenue was down 6.6% year-on-year for the first nine months of the year, and down by 7.8% year-on-year in Q3.
Reach said it remained confident of meeting profit expectations for the full year. Its market expectations are an average of analyst published forecasts – a consensus adjusted operating profit for FY23 of £95m.
“We do not anticipate the market backdrop to change materially in the near term and as a result we remain focused on the areas within our control; improving customer engagement, diversifying revenues and driving efficiencies,” the company stated.
“Our plans to reduce full-year operating costs by 5-6% remain on track. We expect a High Court judgement on time limitation relating to historical legal issues in the next few months.”
Reach chief executive Jim Mullen commented: “This quarter we see continued evidence that our data driven strategy is working, supported by our resilient print business. Through this challenging period, we have remained focused on the controllables.
“We are delivering our Customer Value Strategy and have made progress diversifying our audience. We continue to review our cost base so that we can accelerate our digital transformation.”
