Record and Mail cash in on cutbacks

The Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail managed to grow profits, despite lower sales last year, thanks to reduced administrative and production costs.

Accounts filed at Companies House show the newspapers, which axed 90 editorial jobs this summer, made pre-tax profits of £16.5 million in the 52 weeks to 2 January against £14.3m a year earlier.

Over the same period, the two newspapers, which are owned by Trinity Mirror, saw turnover drop from £95.2m to £89.7m. But the group cut the cost of producing the papers and its administration costs by about £7.5m.

The company’s staff numbers remained stable last year, with an average 364 people working on the titles.

In June this year, the group announced that non-Scottish content would be shared with other Mirror group titles, including the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and the People, leading to a loss of jobs. At the time, Trinity Mirror described the move as “the next stage of its technology-led development”. It added that some magazine and features pages would be handled by the Press Association.

While two of the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail’s directors are paid directly by the parent company, it was revealed that the remaining director received a pay and pension package worth £325,000 last year.

Trinity Mirror’s local newspaper subsidiary north of the Border, Scottish & Universal Newspapers, saw profits before tax fall from £7.1m to £6.9m last year, as its turnover declined to £22.8m and its workforce fell by 22 to 300.