Media publishers in recent years have tried to support their free news sites with paid facilities such as bingo. However the increased competition in the bingo industry in recent years will no doubt see bosses at Trinity Mirror regretting entering the industry. While the digital advertising sales in the national division (Mirror, People, Daily Record and Sunday Mail) grew for the 17 weeks to 30th October these were nearly all wiped out by disappointing results in the Mirror Bingo operations as players declined.

MirrorBingo’s success for Trinity Mirror has been declining for some time. In the 2009 annual report, the publisher saw “bingo revenues declining due to increased competition and the impact of the recession”. This trend has continued and no doubt the publisher will be looking at how to limit the impact that bingo has on the future profit of the company.

The publisher may look to push operations in other forms of the gambling industry as the CEO Sly Bailey claimed to the city analysts in August 2011: “Expect significant developments to the Mirror.co.uk and MirrorFootball.co.uk sites in the fourth quarter.”