Long-serving Trinity Mirror executives including former boss Sly Bailey cashed in today as long-term awards paid out — thanks to a recovery in the share price that has been boosted by digital growth.
Digital display advertising leapt 30% last year at the owner of the Daily Mirror, with an acceleration after The Sun put its rival website behind a paywall in July. Digital display was up 90% in December. “The Sun paywall clearly had some impact,” admitted chief executive Simon Fox, but he added that it was “relatively small” as the free Mirror site did not see a sudden jump in users.
Digital generated £40 million but is still failing to offset print decline as group revenues fell 6% to £663.8 million. Trinity fell to a pre-tax loss of £160.8 million after previously warning of a writedown on historic assets. Underlying profit was up and debt fell.
The shares have risen tenfold since 2012 when Bailey quit, and she has benefited by collecting 197,000 shares through a long-term scheme, worth £430,000 at today’s price. The award for Bailey and other directors could have been higher but Trinity cut it by a fifth to reflect “performance”.
Fox earned £710,000, including a £113,000 bonus, as he hit only 30% of targets. He is in line for £720,000 worth of new long-term shares.
