The group reported revenues of £383m for the period, down year on year from £460.8m. Operating profit was down to £49.1m, from £80.5m, with pre-tax profits falling 39.5% to £31.3m.
Advertising revenue across the group's regional division, which has closed more than 50 titles in the past two years, fell 34.5% year on year to £104m, hurt by a fall of 36.8% between January and February.
Recruitment and property advertising across the regionals, which account for 33% of ad revenues, fell 50.4% and 52.5% respectively. The group said the proportion of digitial revenues coming from the categories, 34.2% and 24.3%, had reduced impact on the overall business.
Across the national division, which houses the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror, The People and Scottish titles the Daily Record and Sunday Mail, revenues fell from £244.4m to £227.6m, a fall of 6.9%.
The group said ad revenues across the nationals had improved of late, falling 9.4% for May and June compared to a decrease of 15.9% for January and February.
It also said revenue had been negatively impacted by its Scottish titles having a higher proportion of "cyclical advertising revenues".
Circulation revenue across the nationals, which included cover price rises at the Daily Mirror, from 40p to 45p, and the Daily Record, from 35p to 40p, fell 3.1% to £133.3m.
Digital revenues across the nationals fell by £0.4m to £2.4m, while monthly unique users across its national website grew to 9.4 million, a lift of 74% year on year.
A statement from the group, which is undergoing a voluntary redundancy scheme at its London-based titles, said: "We have seen a gradual improvement in the rate of decline in revenues as we have progressed through the period and this is expected to continue for the remainder of the year."
It also highlighted new revenue streams with launches such as Mirrorfootball.co.uk and 3am.co.uk
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
