By Paul Sandle
LONDON (Reuters) – Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour, the European football championships and the British election helped British news publisher Reach see a sharp rise in digital revenue in the second quarter, reversing a decline in the first quarter.
The publisher of the Daily Mirror, Daily Express and regional titles and associated websites cut costs, improving its margin by 3.9 percentage points, and boosted operating profit in the first half by 23 percent to £44.5 million ($57.1 million).
Revenue fell 5.2 percent to £265 million, due to double-digit declines in print advertising in the first and second quarters. However, digital revenue rose 6.7 percent in the second quarter, after falling 8.5 percent in the first quarter.
Chief Executive Jim Mullen said: “In addition to our expertise in managing our print products, we have sold our digital assets significantly and achieved an improvement in operating margin.”
He said the group offers cross-platform journalism and nine million people have signed up to receive news directly on their devices, including via WhatsApp.
“We had this three-week thrill with the European Championship, the election and the Taylor Swift phenomenon,” he said on Wednesday.
“But some of the traditional advertisers are also going through a boom right now. So grocery retail has helped the print sector, but also the digital sector,” he added.
The company’s shares rose 1.2 percent in morning trading.
(1 USD = 0.7790 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by James Davey and Conor Humphries)
