National World PLC (LON:NWOR) said significant progress has been made since completing the acquisition of JPI Media Publishing Ltd, whose titles include The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, in January.
The initial reorganisation has been completed and has delivered annualised savings of £4.0mln net of National World management costs.
The group, which is led by former Mirror Group and Mecom Group boss David Montgomery, said it remains on track to deliver at least £5.0mln of annualised savings (net of National World management costs) during 2021 with restructuring costs of about £4.0mln.
National World is confident that its performance for 2021 will be in line with its expectations, it said in its first trading update for the 21-week period ended May 29.
It plans to roll-out a subscription package across 35 JPI Media websites and trial a new subscription platform for premium content payment on a daily basis.
Total revenue, across the print and digital businesses, for the first quarter fell 18% year on year with an increase of 18% for April and May compared with the same months in 2020.
During the period, its year-on-year subscription revenue tripled to £0.6mln.
The group is targeting doubling its online audience by the second half of 2022.