Operating profit at Trinity Mirror's regional press division fell 16 per cent to £36.5m in 2011 on revenue down 2.3 per cent to £293.6m.
Results for the year ending 1 January 2012 include the year-on-year impact of its 2010 acquisition of GMG Regional Media and titles including the Manchester Evening News.
Excluding that acquisition underlying revenues fell by 7.6 per cent, which Trinity said was a 'marginal improvement'from the fall of 8.2 per cent in underlying revenue in 2010.
Today's results show that – taking into account the GMG Media acquisition – advertising revenue was down 3.8 per cent to £191.7m and and circulation revenue fell 0.5 per cent to £66m.
Display advertising at the regional division – which include the Western Mail and Liverpool Echo – was down 8 per cent, with recruitment down 14.7 per cent, property down 6.2 per cent and motors down 13.5 per cent.
Trinity said that although circulation continued to fall it had seen an 'encouraging improvement in the rate of decline for a number of key paid-for titles during the year".
Digital revenue for regionals was up 1.9 per cent and now represents 11.1 per cent total revenue.
Trinity said that average monthly unique users across its websites had grown by 18.4 per cent year on year to 13.1million per month.
In December 2011, Trinity announced the creation of Media Scotland, integrating the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail with sister company Scottish and Universal Newspapers.
In this morning's statement the company said: 'We envisage clear revenue and efficiency savings from this change and these will begin to accrue throughout 2012."
- To contact the Press Gazette newsdesk call 020 7936 6433 or email pged@pressgazette.co.uk
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog