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Trinity Mirror chief rival relieve publisher adjusted profit before tax rose 61% to £ 50.4m in the first half

Sly Bailey has dismissed the impact of Richard Desmond's move to cut the Daily Star's price to just 10p as "minimal", as Trinity Mirror reported strong first-half results.

Trinity chief executive Bailey said the Mirror, which is priced at 45p, was not seen as a competitor to the Daily Star by consumers as it was a much higher-quality read.

"There has been a minimal impact on the Mirror's sale, less than 2,000 copies per day," she said, referring to the impact of the Star's price cut from 5 July. "The fact is that the Star is only worth 10p and we have no intention of going down that road."

Trinity Mirror's adjusted pre-tax profits surged 61% to £50.4m in the six months to 4 July. The publisher recorded a return to advertising growth across its national titles, with ad revenue up 2.2% year on year, although revenue continued to slide at the 150-paper strong regional newspaper operation to the tune of 7.2%.

The company said that following the acquisition of GMG Regional Media in March that it would "continue to seek further consolidation opportunities where there is a good commercial and strategic fit along with a strong financial case".

Bailey refused to confirm or deny a report that Trinity Mirror has held discussions with rival DMGT over a deal with its regional newspaper operation, saying: "I believe that scale is an important driver of growth; the results out of GMG are a case in point, further consolidation is about timing, price and the general state of the economy to ensure we can deliver value for shareholders."

Trinity Mirror managed to keep total group revenues flat year on year at £382m; this included £18.2m of new revenue from the former GMG Regional Media operation. Group revenues actually fell by 5% when the impact of the acquisition is stripped out â€" still an improvement over the 12.4% decline reported for 2009.

Adjusted operating profit rose 25.7% to £ 61.7m.

Trinity said that advertising revenues now count for 46% of total revenues. The company's national newspaper division saw revenue fall by 3.4%, fuelled by a drop in circulation revenue, as ad revenue climbed 2.2%. Trinity said that its national titles achieved growth in ad revenue every month this year with "double-digit" growth in June, partly thanks to the World Cup.

The publisher's regional operation increased its revenue by 4.5%, including GMG Regional Media's performance, or fell by 7.2% when it is excluded. In 2009 the regional division saw revenues decline 23.5%.

Trinity Mirror said that it expected to see a "modest improvement" in the rate of decline in revenues in the second half of the year. Revenues are expected to be up 3% this month, although taking out the impact of GMG Regional Media the company will see revenues fall 6% year on year. Advertising revenues in July are expected to be flat for the national newspaper division and 9% down for the regional operation.

The company said that Mirrorfootball.co.uk, which it launched last summer, Will hit profitability in its first year.

"Looking ahead to the second half of the year we remain cautious on the economy but are confident of delivering a robust performance for the full year driven by stabilising revenues and continued cost efficiencies," the company said.

Total costs, excluding GMG Regional Media operating costs of £15.5m, fell by £29m.

The company increased its annual savings target of 5 million, 25 million pounds, of which 15 million pounds made in the first six months.

Trinity Mirror's share price rose by 17.5%, or 13.25p, to 89p on the back of the results announcement this morning.

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