£7.5m cost of Trinity Mirror price war

Nick Goodway12 April 2012

THE Daily Mirror's cover price war with The Sun cost it £7.5m in lost revenue in the first half of this year, its owner Trinity Mirror has revealed.

That left the national and regional newspaper group nursing a 3% fall in pre-tax profits to £78.4m in the six months to the end of June.

Chairman Sir Victor Blank said: 'Our national strategy, still in its early stages, is progressing as expected with improvements in the quality of our main titles and strengthening of our brand and promotional activity to increase readership.'

Trinity Mirror has also been forced to take a big hit on new FRS17 accounting rules governing pension funds. It has restated last year's figures and increased pension provisions by £7m to £12.8m for the half year. Its pension fund deficit jumped from £25.9m to £84.1m.

Blank said the group had saved £14.6m in costs in the first half and remained on target to save £32m in the full year. The immediate future of the marketplace was uncertain, but he expected a satisfactory outcome for the year.

Total turnover fell by 3.7% to £559.6m, earnings were 5.2% lower at 18.4p and the interim dividend is pegged at 5.3p.

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