SHARES in Daily Mirror publisher Reach bounced 13% today as the publisher was able to slash its provision for phone hacking payouts.
A recent ruling by a judge that claims for phone hacking can’t go further back than March 2014 helped Reach cut its likely legal bill for that scandal from £40 million to £18 million.
It was also able to offer clarity today on staff pension liabilities, pleasing the market which sent the shares up 8p to 67p.
While the digital advertising market remains under pressure, print has been robust and is still 70% of the business.
Hundreds of journalists have been made redundant under CEO Jim Mullen as he pursues a digital strategy.
Amid criticism of the usability of the company websites, digital sales fell 15% to £127 million, while print circulation remains a “resilient and predictable revenue stream”.
Print sales are down just 2% to £439 million for the year to March 5.
Mullen said: “The success of our strategy also came to the fore this year. Despite the macroeconomic pressures, we have continued to build a stronger digital business with an increasing portion of much higher yielding revenues, reducing our reliance on the open market. At the same time, we have expertly managed our print business, maintaining circulation revenues as well as delivering necessary cost and efficiency plans across the Group.”
Reach has “steadily increased use of AI through the year”, added Mullen. We have “made many necessary changes to our teams this year”.
Reach employs 2000 journalists across the UK, the second biggest journalism employer after the BBC.
