Drilling down, Bailey says “no paywall” will be the case for regional titles: “[Regionals have] t’s always been an ad-driven business and that is something that will work online as well as in print. Our challenge in regionals is not how do we make money online but our challenges is scale, and continuing to grow our digital business in proportion to print…But we have no plans to introduce paywalls to our regional sites.”

The national assets are a different story: “Nationals are trying to replicate their existing model, but their costs are too high and revenues are too low…We’re not on a mindless quest for users…There will be some opprtunities to charge for specifc content but we don’t think a paywall around everything is the right strategy.”

Where does Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI) does see an “opportunity to charge for content”? In special-interest sites and related products. It is currently developing an iPhone football app that will feature gaming, interactive competitions, real-time results information and other features. “It’s this type of online product that we realistically feel our audiences will pay for.” It also has plans for further mobile apps.

Trinity Mirror, which owns several nationals including the Daily Mirror, and more than 120 regional titles (to grow by 30 when the acquisition of GMG Regional Media is completed at the end of March), overall reported revenues of £763.3 million ($1.2 billion) for the year ended January 3, a fall of 12.4 percent from 2008’s figure of £871.7 million ($1.3 billion). Advertising represented £94.7 million of this decline. These numbers were however ahead of analysts’ expectations. “We said 2009 would be tough, and it was,” said Sly Bailey (left), the CEO of Trinity Mirror, in the analyst call. “We cannot defy gravity in the advertising market.” Adjusted operating profit was £105.4 million, representing a fall of 27.4 percent. More details from today’s earnings:

—Digital: Overall these fell by 18 percent, to £35.6 million from 2008’s figure of £43.6 million. Digital revenue from its regional titles, which provide Trinity Mirror with the bulk of their digital sales, saw a 19 percent drop in ad revenues: these were £30.8 in 2009, compared to £38 million the year before. Digital ad revenues at the national newspaper division saw a smaller decline: £4.8 million compared to £5.6 million the year before, a decrease of 14.3 percent. Excluding property and recruitment, Trinity Mirror says that digital revenue for the group actually grew by 22.7 percent. It cited display advertising as one of the drivers and evidence that it is trying to be less reliant on categories like property, recruitment and motors for ad revenues.

—New sites, more traffic: Average monthly unique users to Trinity Mirror’s sites grew by 41 percent year on year; currently they get 17 million uniques per month. The company has been launching new niche web properties beyond those associated with its newspaper titles, including mirrorfootball.co.uk, 3am.co.uk and localmole.co.uk. The football site, Bailey says, already has around 2 million unique users per month, making it the 14th most-popular football site in the UK. It is aiming to break into the top-10 this year, and it is projecting for this site to be profitable this year. No word yet on whether charging for a football mobile app would also mean a paywall for corresponding web sites. The company projects a total of 24 million unique users by the end of 2010.

—More from the regional web sites: Although the regional web properties make up the bulk of Trinity’s digital revenues, they account for only about half the traffic, and seem to be growing at a slower rate. They are currently getting 7 million unique users per month, a growth of 11 percent year on year. Operating profit from the group’s regional sites was £6.6 million, compared to £11.9 million, a fall of 45 percent. The worst performing areas for the regional web properties—as they have also been with Trinity Mirror’s competitors—were recruitment (a fall of 38 percent) and property advertising (a fall of 25 percent). Excluding these, digital revenue for the regional sites grew by 38 percent. The acquisition of GMG’s regional media assets will add a further 40 web sites to Trinity Mirror’s portfolio.

—National sites: Total digital revenues for the nationals portfolio fell by 14.3 percent, to £4.8 million, with Trinity Mirror citing a decline in bingo revenues in particular. (It does not break out operating profit for the nationals division.) The nationals seem to represent the biggest opportunity for growth right now: monthly uniques are now at 9 million, a growth of 78 percent; it says over 50 percent of those users are currently coming from the UK.

—Cost cuts. The company plans to make £20 million in cost cuts this year, with a group-wide recruitment and salary freeze as part of this plan. In the past year, Trinity Mirror laid off 1,650 people, around 20 percent of the total, and closed or sold 30 regional titles.

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q408	Net Inc. vs Q408
Trinity Mirror	Release		12.4%	N/A

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed