Partner Article

Johnston Press profits up after seven years

A regional newspaper group which owns six titles in the North East has announced its first increase in operating profits for seven years.

Johnston Press’ like-for-like operating profit for the six months ended June 29 2013 increased by 4.3 per cent from £27.4m to £28.6m.

The Edinburgh-based group, which owns the Sunderland Echo, Hartlepool Mail, South Shields Gazette, the Morpeth Herald, the Whitley Bay News Post Leader and the Northumberland Gazette, made a pre-tax loss of £248.7m compared to a pre-tax profit of £13.6m in the same period last year.

Total revenues decreased by 9.8 per cent on a like-for-like basis period on period with broadly similar declines across all categories, a pattern the group said is replicated across the industry as consumer confidence remained low in the first five months of 2013.

Total advertising revenues declined 13.6 per cent in the half year. The decline seen at the start of the year of 17.6 per cent narrowed during February and March to 12.6 per cent.

The improving trend continued, with the decline rates narrowing further to 6.3 per cent across June and July. The group’s like-for-like circulation revenues decline reduced by just 0.7 per cent in the first half and it said circulation revenues for titles relaunched during 2013 are showing early signs of improvement.

Chief executive Ashley Highfield said: “Johnston Press has continued to make good progress during the first half in the implementation of its strategy for growth, completing the re-launch of its print titles and investing further in technology to build its digital platform whilst maintaining a tight control on costs.

“It is encouraging to see the benefits of our actions starting to come through, with the group achieving its first like for like operating profit increase in seven years.

“We remain focused on adapting our business to the changing environment in which we operate and reaching the point where digital growth will offset any further decline so that we can return to overall top line growth.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .