Reach, the publisher of the Daily Mirror and Daily Express, reported a 24 per cent drop in first-half adjusted operating profit after it was hit by Facebook’s move away from news content and a tough print advertising market.
The company, which also owns the Daily Star and regional titles across the UK such as the Manchester Evening News, said it would cut costs to improve performance in the second half, allowing it to maintain profit expectations.
Jim Mullen, Reach’s chief executive, said digital revenue, which fell 16 per cent to £60.8 million, had been “materially affected” by lower referral traffic, particularly after Facebook, the Meta-owned social media giant, deprioritised the displaying of news content to users.
The changes led to a significant drop in customers
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