Yet despite the fall, the company still made a profit of £145.2m and chief executive Sly Bailey claimed that the company had performed "creditably".

Trinity, which publishes the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, is the first major newspaper publisher to announce its 2008 report on the back of a tough year of decreasing circulations and advertising revenue for the industry as a whole.

It recorded a turnover of £871.7m, down from £923.3m in 2007, with regional newspapers bringing in £396m and nationals achieving £475.7m.

Bailey said: "Trinity Mirror has performed creditably in very difficult trading conditions. While advertising revenues were under extreme pressure we delivered full-year results ahead of market forecasts."

Despite this, the company's shares were off nearly 10% to 36.25p at the time of writing.

Baily added: "In spite of the downturn, I am a firm believer that careful management of our portfolio of strong print and online brands will enable us to navigate our way through the challenging market conditions as we make the transition to a new lower-cost multi-platform business model."

She added: "With our proven track record of delivering substantial cost savings and driving efficiencies in our businesses, we remain well positioned to manage our way through these uncertain times for the UK economy."

More than 800 staff left the company in 2008, around 9% of the total headcount, which helped towards a £30m cut in costs – £10m ahead of the £20m target.

Cost cutting is expected to continue into 2009, with the group setting a target of £25m for the year.

The company invested £7.5m in its Oldham facility, which will allow it to centralise the printing of its North West titles and close a plant at Liverpool by the end of the year, a move that has faced strong protest from Unite.

It also froze staff pay, a move followed by other newspaper publishers, including Johnston Press.

Also see: 'We will never launch another paper'