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MANAGING DIRECTOR%u2019S REPORT 13The media industry, in the Caribbean and across the globe, continues to be bufeted by secular changes brought on by the reshaping of the advertising world by digital giants. Here, in Trinidad and Tobago, we had to deal with a lingering economic downturn. Those job losses will no doubt have an efect on economic activity in the country, afecting retail, advertising and other businesses.Faced with these headwinds, Guardian Media Limited decided to stay the course, stabilize our revenues and resolutely enact our long-term vision for the future. With this in mind, we note the advice of the famed investor Warren Bufet: %u201cSomeone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.%u201dGuardian Media enlisted the best minds in the company to help craft a bold vision for the digital future. Our vision is to deliver award winning journalism and entertainment to our already robust audience, expand our viewership and subscriber base and to connect our loyal base with brands they love and trust. We aim to be the home of the leading Caribbean brands.Anticipating challenges to our revenues in 2018, we experienced a $9.5M decline on the top line revenues from $137.8 million in the prior year to $128.3 million in 2018. We reported a before tax loss of $962 thousand versus a $2.2 million loss in the prior year. Whilst Guardian Media is trailing in yearover-year revenue, the incremental increase in quarterly revenues throughout the 2018 fnancial year is encouraging. We continue to adapt to operating conditions with increased investments in technology while at the same time managing our controllable expenses. This strategy to improve operational efciencies contributed to a year-over-year reduction in operational expenditure by $16 million or 22%.Despite our challenges, there was much to celebrate. I am extremely proud to report that we successfully broadcasted both the 2019 World Cup and CPL in high defnition. This set a new standard for sports broadcasting from a local FTA TV station cementing the place that CNC3 is now the top choice for local television. On the electronic side, CNC3 continues to beat the competition. By all measures, our newscasts and other programming continues to connect to our loyal audiences through superior contact and content.We also decided to play the long game in our subscription strategy for the Guardian. While our competitors decided to raise the price of their newspapers during an economic downturn, we stayed the course, opting to maintain our pricing strategy. With the help of our advertising campaign to underpin Guardian%u2019s historical richness and service, we reminded our readers of our organizational record in providing verifed and trusted information over the past century. Readers rewarded us. We have a 37% rise in circulation in the last quarter of 2018.Our Radio division ofers seven highly recognizable radio brands in the urban, mainstream, traditional and religious markets. There were surges in the popularity for the Slam 100.5FM and 95.1FM Remix frequencies in 2018 due to changes in content and line up. In Guyana, we are leveraging on opportunities to widen coverage for our 90.1FM station stemming from receipt of broadcast license in late 2017.We are positioned to strategically enhance our billboard network in 2019 with all ffteen state-of-the-art billboards operationalized in 2018.It was a great honour to participate with scores of our staf members in October 2018 when they came together and hosted the Guardian Media Telethon to raise funds to help alleviate the devastation caused by the fooding across many communities in Trinidad and Tobago. Our employees also did an amazing job in supporting our Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives through launching our recycling initiative GML GO GREEN and in celebrating World Environment Day with the sharing of seed packets in each newspaper.2019 will mark the year that GML will have many of our structural changes in place. The newsroom was fully integrated by the end of the frst quarter in 2019. Newspaper and television journalists now share the same space on St. Vincent Street. We plan to introduce new current afairs programming to diferentiate ourselves from the competitors. Audiences on all platforms will see deeper and more engaging content in both entertainment and current afairs. We are dedicated to growing our share of wallet with our existing clients and attracting new clients by further improving our sales and service capability with the aspiration of delivering audiences through eyeballs and ears and selling this to businesses who are trying to connect with these people.We have reconfgured our commercial approach in the frst quarter 2019 to maximize opportunities in the market. We will be expanding our product portfolio of our brands to establish a better connection with the audience. The Guardian Media team strongly believes that more revenue opportunities from our various strategies will reap rewards in 2019. Our focus as we move forward will continue to be our relationships with our clients and audiences and to provide them with traditional and digital media solutions from our diverse portfolio of brands in TV, Radio, Print and Billboards.I would like to thank our Board, Shareholders, Clients, Advertising Partners and Employees for their continued support in building this great Company.Alain Nicholas SabgaManaging Director