LONDON (Brand Republic) – Trinity Mirror has announced the abrupt resignation of group managing director Roger Eastoe, overshadowing the UK’s largest newspaper publisher’s encouraging first half-year results with pre-tax profits up 15% on the same period last year to £104.5m.
The news of Eastoe’s departure follows a boardroom shake up which also claimed Mike Masters, group managing director of UK and Ireland publishing.
They will be replaced by a single senior executive in a role which is expected to oversee strategic and operational responsibilities for the group’s newspaper titles.
Trinity Mirror, which owns The Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and the Sunday Mail as well regional newspapers, including the Birmingham Post & Mail, attributed its rise in pre-tax profits to a strong performance by both regional and national newspapers.
Sales of its regional titles improved 6.2% to £245.3m against operating profits of £66.8m –- an increase of 10%.
Its national titles’ sales increased 6.2% to £268.9m, on operating profits of £55.4m, up 5.7%.
The company has spent £14.9m on new developments so far this year -- including the launch of Metro titles in Newcastle and Birmingham -- compared with only £1.1m for the same period in 1999.
The company plans to launch two UK internet portals and 10 regional websites by the end of the year at a cost anticipated to be in the region of £50m.