Mirror and Express owner Reach bolstered by Euros and news-heavy year

The publisher of the Express and Mirror newspapers said it has benefited from a more news-heavy year amid the UK election, Euros tournament and Taylor Swift tour, despite battling a “tough” backdrop for the industry.

Reach, which also owns the Daily Star and regional newspapers across the UK, said its digital sales returned to growth in recent months.

Revenues across its online platforms grew by 6.7% between April and June, compared with the same period a year ago.

It marks a turnaround in performance after seeing its digital sales drop in previous quarters.

However, the volume of page views plunged by a quarter over the period, which Reach blamed on the ongoing impact of news being “deprioritised” by major technology platforms.

Firms such as Facebook owner Meta moved last year to prioritise user-generated content above news on their social media sites, which has rocked traditional media groups.

Furthermore, sales from its physical newspapers dropped by 6.2% over the latest period.

But the newspaper group said it was bolstered by key events this year which meant it generated more content across platforms and benefited from elevated spending on advertising.

This included the General Election campaign, the Euro 2024 tournament which saw England men’s football team face Spain in the final, and Taylor Swift touring at sold-out venues across the UK.

It revealed a 23% jump in its adjusted operating profit to £44.5 million over the first half of the year, compared with 2023.

This was helped by the impact of cost-cutting across the business over the past year, including reducing the number of staff it employs by 14%.

Meanwhile, Reach said its journalists were continuing to use artificial intelligence (AI) in newsrooms.

The technology is already making things more efficient by reducing the amount of time spent on some tasks, such as uploading stories to its content platform.

Reach said it was pleased with its recent performance despite the “tough macro backdrop” and was continuing to see “resilience” in terms of newspaper readership.

Chief executive Jim Mullen said: “We are pleased to have delivered further operational progress this year, with our commercial and editorial teams making the most of the strong news agenda.

“We continue to build a stronger, more resilient business and are on track with our plans for the year.”

Shares in Reach were up by more than 4% on Wednesday morning.