MEDIA FORUM: The industry gives its verdict on Bailey.(management of Sly Bailey)

Sly Bailey has been the chief executive of Trinity Mirror for a year. How has she done so far? Alasdair Reid reports.

Sly Bailey took up her position as the chief executive of Trinity Mirror on 3 February last year, thereby missing Groundhog Day (on 2 February) by a matter of hours. It's unlikely that the boss of a major media company is superstitious, but still, it's good to get off on the right foot.

Previous Trinity Mirror bosses have all been condemned to repeat a less-than-wholesome version of the past over and over again - falling circulations on the national titles impacting on the bottom line, leading to short-term remedies based on cost-cutting, resulting in an inferior editorial product that in turn fuels falling circulations. A roundabout, in other words, without the magic.

Right from the start, though, there was an expectation in the market that Bailey's tenure was going to be different. This was based on the belief that her magazine market know-how was going to be more than a little useful at the tabloid end of the national newspaper market. This, of course, is where the focus for ad agencies lies - not necessarily in the regional titles, which deliver a greater percentage of company revenues.

Meanwhile, the group's greatest living asset, the Mirror editor, Piers Morgan, had been riding his horse on to the moral high ground in an attempt to recapture the paper's heritage of serious campaigning journalism. How was that relationship going to work, especially as the Mirror's circulation has continued on what seems to be a long historical decline? There were other personnel issues, too - especially, according to agencies, on the sales and marketing sides.

Well, we know what happened on that score. There has been a complete clear out and a new team put in place under the general manager, Ellis Watson, the former News Group marketing director, who joined in May. In results released last week, the company posted robust profits on flattish revenue figures. Which would suggest that cost-cutting still dominates the agenda. How confident should advertisers be that the national products are on the mend?

Roy Jeans, the managing director of Magna Global UK, argues that although we've yet to see a spectacular turn around in performance at the nationals, new products - for instance, the 3am celebrity supplement launched this week - are a step in the right direction. And, he adds, there seems to be a tremendous sense of direction and confidence there these days.