Reach
Reach published its full‑year 2025 results on 3 March 2026. On an adjusted basis, the headline numbers showed a business holding its ground: adjusted operating profit rose 2.4% to £104.7 million, adjusted operating margin increased from 19.0% to 20.2%, and adjusted operating costs fell 5.2%, outperforming a 4–5% reduction target. The total dividend was maintained at 7.34p per share for the second consecutive year.
The statutory accounts, however, showed a very different picture. Reach moved from a £74.2 million statutory operating profit in 2024 to a £160.1 million statutory operating loss in 2025, driven by a £222.8 million non‑cash impairment charge (£182.6 million net of deferred tax). The impairment was applied mainly to publishing rights and titles and goodwill, with further write‑downs of internally generated intangibles, property, plant and equipment, and right‑of‑use assets. Management linked this to lower‑than‑expected digital revenues, a weaker outlook for 2026 and a structural downgrade to long‑term growth assumptions for the digital business in light of reduced referral traffic.
The market reaction reflected that reset. On results day, Reach’s share price fell by roughly 10% to around 60p, valuing the business at under £200 million, a fraction of the valuations these national and regional brands would likely have commanded a decade ago.
Reach plc is the UK and Ireland’s largest commercial news publisher, operating under 120 trusted brands that span the full breadth of British and Irish media. Its national portfolio is built around household names: the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Express, and the Daily Record in Scotland. These sit alongside a large network of regional and local titles, among them the Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, MyLondon, WalesOnline, BelfastLive, Nottinghamshire Live, and BristolLive, that collectively form one of the most extensive local journalism operations in the English‑speaking world.
The company also maintains a significant US digital presence, reaching around 9% of the US online population each month. As of year‑end 2025, Reach reported that it connects with over 69% of the UK’s online population monthly and reaches more than 112 million social followers worldwide. The business trades on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker RCH.
Reach’s current shape reflects a series of acquisitions, most notably the 2018 transaction in which Trinity Mirror acquired Northern & Shell, bringing the Express and Star titles into the group. The Group currently operates three print manufacturing facilities, in Oldham, Saltire (near Glasgow) and Watford, but, following a post year‑end decision announced with the FY25 results, it plans to close the Saltire and Watford sites. Oldham will absorb most Scottish output, with remaining printing outsourced under long‑term contracts.
Key financial metrics
| Metric | 2025 | 2024 | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Revenue | £518.4m | £538.6m | –3.7% |
| — Print Revenue | £388.1m | £406.7m | –4.6% |
| — Digital Revenue | £128.9m | £130.0m | –0.9% |
| Adjusted Operating Profit | £104.7m | £102.3m | +2.4% |
| Adjusted Operating Margin | 20.2% | 19.0% | +1.2 ppts |
| Adjusted Operating Costs | £416.4m | £439.1m | –5.2% |
| Adjusted Operating Cash Flow | £103.5m | £107.3m | –3.5% |
| Net Debt | £34.9m | £14.2m | +£20.7m |
| Dividend per Share | 7.34p | 7.34p | 0% |
| Statutory Operating Profit/(Loss) | –£160.1m | +£74.2m | –315.8% |
| Earnings per Share (adjusted) | 26.8p | 25.3p | +5.9% |
Source: Reach plc FY25 RNS, 3 March 2026.
The defining external story of Reach’s 2025 performance was the collapse of Google Discover referral traffic. For several years, Google Discover, the personalised content feed in the Google app, had been one of the most valuable distribution channels for large publishers, and by late 2024 it had become Reach’s single largest source of referral traffic.
From the summer of 2025, that dynamic reversed. In H2 2025, overall Google‑referred traffic to Reach fell 46% year‑on‑year, contributing to an 8% decline in on‑platform page views across the year. Reach’s risk disclosures explicitly linked this to “a widely publicised Google core update” that led to a significant fall in daily page views for numerous news publishers. In its impairment testing, the Board cut the long‑term growth rate assumption for the digital business from –0.1% (used in the 2024 assessment) to –2.3%, formalising the view that on‑platform volumes are unlikely to return to previous peaks.
The revenue impact was immediate. On‑platform page views, the core driver of programmatic advertising, fell 8% year‑on‑year, and Q4 digital revenue declined 7.8% as the Google effect intensified. Indirect revenues (which include programmatic and off‑platform monetisation) were especially squeezed in Q4, with programmatic volumes falling faster than social revenues could grow.
Quarterly revenue trends by category (YoY %)
| Revenue line | Q1 YoY % | Q2 YoY % | Q3 YoY % | Q4 YoY % | FY YoY % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital revenue | +1.6 | +2.1 | +2.1 | –7.8 | –0.9 |
| Direct revenue | –10.5 | –5.2 | –0.8 | –7.0 | –5.9 |
| Indirect revenue | +11.8 | +7.0 | +4.0 | –8.4 | +2.8 |
| Print revenue | –5.1 | –4.6 | –3.9 | –4.7 | –4.6 |
| Circulation revenue | –4.0 | –3.4 | –2.7 | –3.4 | –3.4 |
| Advertising revenue | –12.5 | –18.2 | –13.3 | –14.8 | –14.8 |
| Group revenue | –3.7 | –3.1 | –2.5 | –5.6 | –3.7 |
Source: Reach plc FY25 RNS, 3 March 2026.
Reach’s referral shock sits within a broader industry pattern. Research published by the trade association Digital Content Next in August 2025 found that most US publisher sites were seeing year‑on‑year Google Search referral declines in the 1–25% range, with losses outnumbering gains two‑to‑one over an eight‑week sample. For news brands, the median decline was around 7%; for non‑news brands it was 14%.
UK publisher Future plc, whose portfolio includes TechRadar and Marie Claire, has gone so far as to develop an internal “Google Zero” contingency plan that assumes search referrals from Google could eventually disappear. Future’s leadership has said that only about 27% of its sessions currently originate from Google Search, underscoring that its exposure is significantly lower than Reach’s.
At the same time, Google is changing the product in ways that reduce incentives for users to click through to publisher sites. AI‑generated answers in search results (AI Overviews) and richer zero‑click experiences depress click‑through rates even when a publisher ranks first. Reporting based on data shared with the UK’s Periodical Publishers Association shows one automotive content publisher suffering a 25% drop in traffic to articles ranking first organically, with click‑through rates falling from 2.75% to 1.71% despite improved search visibility.
Reach’s situation is distinguished by the scale of its historic dependence on Discover and the speed at which that traffic fell away. For a business that still earns roughly three‑quarters of its revenue from print but has relied on digital page views to sustain programmatic income, the timing and severity of the H2 2025 decline were exceptionally disruptive.
Three priorities, one direction
Reach’s strategic response, set out formally at the half‑year in July 2025, revolves around three priorities: Connecting with Audiences, Accelerating the Use of Technology and AI, and Diversifying Revenues. The FY25 results represent the first full year of execution against those goals.
Video is the most visible strategic bet. Reach created over 100 specialist video roles, both in a central Studio team and embedded in newsrooms as “everyday journalism video” units, and is now publishing around 300 social videos per day. Off‑platform page views rose 20% year‑on‑year in H2 2025 and social referrals back to Reach sites increased 21% over the same period.
Several video franchises are emerging as early commercial proofs of concept. Daily Expresso, a politics chat show produced by the Express team and launched in late summer 2025, has accumulated around 3.6 million full‑episode views on YouTube. The All Out Football YouTube channel, launched in autumn 2025 with a commercial partnership from Sky Bet, illustrates how sponsor‑funded video formats can generate revenue outside traditional display and programmatic models.
Despite this operational progress, total video revenues declined 3% year‑on‑year in 2025. Growth in direct and social video and sponsorship income was more than offset by lower programmatic video revenues linked to reduced on‑platform traffic. Returning video revenues to growth is a stated management priority for 2026.
AI is being embedded across the organisation. Google’s Gemini assistant is now available to all employees, with over 40% reported as active users and an average of 2,192 tasks assigned per day. Reach has launched an internal “AI University” for staff training, while its proprietary Guten generative AI tool supports editorial workflows and Mantis, its in‑house ad tech platform, underpins targeted commercial products.
Reach is also experimenting with AI‑related content licensing. A deal agreed with Amazon Web Services allows Reach content to be used to support answers delivered by Alexa, structured on a pay‑per‑usage model that management describes as a recurring revenue stream with greater visibility than traditional flat‑fee syndication. The company has indicated it is in active discussions with other large platforms about similar arrangements.
In 2025 Reach launched its first consumer digital subscriptions, offering ad‑lite experiences and exclusive content tiers. By year‑end, six titles, including the Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, WalesOnline, Daily Record, LeicestershireLive and the Express, had introduced premium offerings, together generating about 15,000 digital subscribers, alongside roughly 17,000 e‑edition subscribers. Conversion has been strongest on premium sports coverage. Management has set an ambition to exceed 75,000 digital subscribers in 2026.
Ecommerce and other diversified revenues continued to grow steadily. The OK! Beauty Box advent calendar delivered another sell‑out year, with volumes up 10% on 2024, and Reach’s ecommerce marketplace Yimbly now carries more than 30,000 products. Diversified revenues, the subset of direct revenues encompassing subscriptions, affiliates, ecommerce and partnerships, grew 4.5% year‑on‑year in 2025.
Reach is also benefiting from social platform monetisation. According to reporting in Digiday, the company has been earning around five‑figure sums per day from Meta’s Content Monetization programme since mid‑2025, with strategy changes on Facebook designed to maximise monetisable engagement.
Print remains the financial backbone of the group. In 2025, print revenue declined 4.6% to £388.1 million, roughly three‑quarters of group turnover, but, as management emphasises, this outperformed volume trends, with print circulation volumes down around 19%. The gap was closed through cover‑price increases, promotional activity and special editions. Reach still sold more than half a million newspapers per day in 2025. Print advertising revenue fell more steeply, down 14.8% to £55.8 million, in line with management expectations given a strong prior‑year comparator.
Post year‑end, Reach announced plans to close its Saltire and Watford print sites. The Oldham facility will take on most Scottish‑market printing, while the remaining work will be outsourced under long‑term contracts. The closures are expected to carry a cash cost of about £25 million but to deliver a two‑year cash payback, lower operational risk and enable the disposal of the two properties in 2027.
Pension burden and financial obligations
Reach continues to operate under substantial pension obligations. In 2025, the group paid £59.1 million in defined benefit pension contributions and a further £4.5 million into escrow accounts, a combined outflow of approximately £63.6 million. Under the current funding schedule, a further £59 million is due in 2026 and £58 million in 2027, with contributions stepping down materially from 2028.
There were some positive developments. The IAS 19 pension position moved from a deficit to a £6.9 million surplus in 2025. After year‑end, the Trinity Retirement Benefit Scheme completed a bulk annuity “buy‑in” covering its remaining uninsured members, eliminating the need for Reach to make the remaining scheduled funding contributions under that scheme and reducing total expected contributions by £8.6 million. A new triennial valuation across schemes is under way and is due for completion by March 2027.
Outlook: caution and conviction
Reach entered 2026 with a cautious outlook on digital volumes but some confidence in its operational levers. The company is “managing on the assumption” that on‑platform traffic will not recover to previous peaks, and notes that trading in the first two months of 2026 has continued against a backdrop of lower referral volumes and a challenging macroeconomic environment. Company‑compiled analyst consensus points to 2026 adjusted operating profit of about £96.4 million, down from £104.7 million in 2025, reflecting expectations that further cost savings will only partially offset ongoing revenue pressure.
Against this backdrop, management is targeting a further 5–6% reduction in adjusted operating costs in 2026, continued expansion of video output and monetisation, wider rollout of digital subscriptions, and additional AI content licensing deals. The total dividend is being held at 7.34p per share, implying a double‑digit dividend yield at current share‑price levels, attractive on paper, but dependent on sustained cash generation and delivery against cost‑reduction plans.
The broader strategic question is whether Reach can successfully reposition itself as a more diversified digital media company while print inevitably declines and key platforms’ behaviour, from Google’s search and Discover algorithms to AI‑driven answer products, remains volatile. The group’s scale, entrenched brands and substantial print cashflows give it a platform to attempt that transition. What 2025 begins to provide is a proof‑of‑concept phase: early evidence that subscriptions can convert, that video can be monetised beyond programmatic, and that AI‑era content licensing can become a recurring revenue stream. The next few years will show whether that foundation is sufficient to offset structural headwinds in the referral and advertising markets.