Trinity Mirror to close New Day as circulation drops below 40,000 and share price hits three-year low ahead of AGM
Trinity Mirror is set to close its most recent venture, New Day, by the end of this week.
Morning Wire understands its circulation has fallen below 40,000 and insiders have suggested that the newspaper's last issue will come out on Friday.
The firm's share price has dropped to a three-year low ahead of its annual general meeting (AGM) tomorrow.
The publishing company is likely to face questions about New Day, a newspaper it launched just over two months ago.
Trinity Mirror declined to comment.
Read more: New Day could be closed if it's not profitable by 2017
The circulation is well below the ultimate target of 200,000 set by Trinity Mirror.
It is also less than the final average circulation of the Independent newspaper – 54,000 copies, including around 15,000 give-away editions – which was closed and switched to an online-only format in March.
Read more: As New Day dawns, Trinity Mirror reports statutory fall in revenue and operating profit
In an interview with Morning Wire on the day of New Day's launch, Trinity Mirror chief executive Simon Fox made it clear the company would be willing to close the title if it failed to deliver the necessary results.
He said: “We’ll watch that carefully over the next six months. We’ve said clearly if we’ve got it wrong – and there isn’t a demand for this paper – then we’re a commercial organisation, we’re very commercially disciplined, and if there isn’t such a demand we’ll either have to radically change it in some way or not continue with it.”
Other troubles facing Trinity Mirror, which also publishes the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Sunday People and regional newspapers, include advertising struggles which have hit the entire newspaper industry and costs from civil cases brought against the company for phone hacking.
Trinity Mirror's share price closed at 113p on Wednesday, the eve of the AGM. This was up 1.35 per cent on Tuesday, but down from more than 180p last May. Tuesday's figure was Trinity Mirror's lowest since August 2013.
Trinity Mirror declined to comment.
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