Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news It is a gloomy picture over at Reach , the company behind the Daily Mirror and the Daily Star, with its shares slumping by more than 20% this morning. The publisher told investors its digital revenue had taken an 11% hit in the first half of the year, as fewer referrals from Google triggered a sharp drop in its online traffic. On-platform page views were 40% lower compared with the same point last year and indirect revenues fell 16.2%.

Its revenue deterioration has accelerated, with digital headaches only worsening as declining Google referrals caused web traffic to tumble and dealt a heavy blow to programmatic advertising. …Extensive cost-cutting did shield company profits from much of the impact, but operating profits still slipped. Measures to control costs have been aggressive, with Reach shuttering print operations in Watford and Glasgow.

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