The group issued a four-month update ahead of its AGM, held today (7 May).
Group sales were down 13.1% in the period, with print revenues down 15.8%.
It cited declines in circulation sales, falls in print advertising revenue at a national and local level, reduced printing requirements from third parties, impacts from cancelled events and a reduction in digital yields due to lower advertising demand.
“Having started the year well, with encouraging digital growth, the COVID-19 crisis began impacting the business from mid-March. Since that time the Group has seen declines in circulation sales, falls in print advertising revenue at a national and local level, reduced printing requirements from third parties, impacts from cancelled events and a reduction in digital yields due to lower advertising demand,” Reach said in a statement.
Online page views were up 57% to 1.7bn during April, while hyper-local, news platform InYourArea now has more than 650,000 registered users.
However, in April group sales fell by 30.5% and print revenues were down 31.8%. Digital revenues also fell by 22.5%.
“While in some areas we have recently seen a stabilisation in trends, circulation remains significantly below pre-Covid-19 levels and advertising remains very challenging and uncertain, with regional advertising particularly impacted,” the group said.
Chief executive Jim Mullen commented: "Our priority in this crisis has been to ensure the health and safety of our colleagues and I would like to thank all of them for the positive way they have responded throughout this process.
“Our teams continue to focus on producing the award-winning journalism and content that is so valued by our customers at this critical time. We continue to build on our position as the UK's largest commercial national and regional news publisher. Our strategy is now even more relevant than before the crisis so we are accelerating plans to drive digital engagement and capture the customer insight and data that is so key. This will ensure a strong and sustainable future for Reach's trusted news brands."
The PLC has taken additional measures including pay reductions, the suspensions of all 2020 bonus schemes and furloughing of a number of staff, and has also cancelled its 2019 final dividend.
“In addition, we began discussions with pension funds about a three-month deferral of monthly contributions which has now been agreed.”
Reach Printing Services is the UK’s biggest third-party contract newspaper printer, with six print sites across the UK.
A spokesman told Printweek that all the print sites had remained open.
“All print sites have been kept open with print workers defined by Government as key workers. Appropriate safety measures including social distancing, increased cleaning and hand washing with provision of anti-bacterial hand sanitisers are a few examples of measures that have been introduced,” he said.
