Johnston Press reports 'some stability' in advertising sales

Published on Wednesday 13 May 2009 21:39

JOHNSTON Press disclosed a further sharp fall in advertising yesterday, but offered a glimmer of hope that revenue declines were stabilising.

The Edinburgh-based group, which owns titles including The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, said total advertising revenues were down 34.4 per cent in the 19 weeks to 9 May compared to the same period last year.

In March Johnston Press said total advertising revenues for the first nine weeks of the year were down 35.9 per cent.

In its interim management statement, the company added that the current advertising performance meant that operating profit for 2009 "is likely to be towards the lower end of current market expectations". The company's shares fell 11.75p to 19.25p yesterday.

The news came as Johnston confirmed that talks on the sale of its newspaper business in the Republic of Ireland had been terminated.

"While there was considerable interest shown from both trade and financial buyers, the board decided that it was not at a sufficiently high price to be in the company's best interest," the company said.

Johnston said it remained in discussions to refinance its debt and expected to have new facilities in place, replacing the current ones that expire in 2010, before its half-year announcement in late August. Net debt at the end of April was 448m, down 29m from the start of the year.

The company said it continued to cut costs, with year-on-year costs expected to be down by more than 30m.

John Fry, Johnston's chief executive, said: "Whilst our market remains fragile, we have seen some stability in advertising revenue over recent weeks, our cost reduction programme is on track, and we are making good progress in the discussions with our debt providers.

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&#149 Trinity Mirror said its advertising revenues fell 30 per cent in the first 17 weeks of the year, with the greatest falls in its regional newspapers, rather than national Mirror titles. Trinity's shares closed up 2p at 76.5p.