Johnston Press reports first-half fall in revenue

Newspaper and online publisher Johnston Press saw revenue fall in the first half of this year, following a slowdown in advertising sales.

The owner of the Yorkshire Post and The Scotsman said underlying revenue fell by 4.6% to £128.9m.

Total advertising sales fell by 5.1% to £80.6m, although digital advertising grew 17.5% year-on-year to £16.5m.

Johnston said the second quarter was impacted by a slowdown in general trading.

Last month shares in the company fell sharply when it warned half-year and full-year profits would be hit after advertisers delayed and cut spending around May's general election.

Over the first half, the Edinburgh-based publisher made cost savings of £7.6m, which it said offset revenue declines and funded digital investment of £2.6m in the period.

Johnston also reported a pre-tax profit of £2.2m, compared with a loss of £6.3m a year ago.

It attributed the improvement to lower interest costs following a refinancing deal last year.

Johnston saw underlying print sales revenue fall by 5.3% year-on-year to £37.6m, which it said reflected its decision to keep cover prices unchanged in more than 60 of its titles.

Net debt was £183.3m, £10.9m less than at the end of 2014.

'Challenging'

Chief executive Ashley Highfield said: "Trading conditions in the first half of 2015 have undoubtedly been challenging, with May and June being particularly difficult - a time when there was also a high degree of uncertainty in the wider market.

"However, we believe local publishing, with SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) representing 80% of our advertising revenue, is not as volatile as national publishing.

" We have seen some improvement in reducing the decline in advertising revenues in July compared to July 2014.

"We will continue to drive for further improvement in revenues, albeit off a lower base, and will also continue to target further cost savings."