Regional publisher Johnston Press saw revenues fall by 4.3pc in the first half of 2014 while profits rose by 3.6pc, according to half-yearly results published today.
Overall revenues fell to £135.8m in the period January to June compared to £141.9m in the same period in 2013.
However underlying profits grew from £27.3m in the first half of 2013 to £28.3 this year.
Today’s report also reveals that the group’s net debt position has “improved significantly” with net debt of £181.6m at 28 June 2014 compared to £306.4m a year earlier.
It follows the recent capital refinancing plan in which the group raised £365m through the sale of new bonds and shares, enabling it to pay down around a third of its debt.
Chief executive Ashley Highfield said the company had delivered a “solid first half performance” and said there was now “real momentum” gathering pace within the group.
Today’s figures showed the group’s total audience grew to 25.6m across print and digital platforms, representing year-on-year growth of 14.3pc.
Digital audiences have grown to around 15.9m unique users a month – up 39.4pc on 2013 – while the number of mobile visitors to the company’s news websites grew by 88pc to stand at 6.7m.
Said Ashley: “The results reflect our on-going progress against our strategic priorities as well as an improving economic climate, and demonstrate our continuing relevance to the communities we serve across print and digital.
“We are growing strongly in a number of categories, and reducing the decline in the rest, whilst continuing to bring down our cost base. As a result we are growing operating profits and margins.”
“The economy is continuing to improve and the ripple-out effect from London and the South East is beginning to show in the numbers in Scotland, Yorkshire and Northern Ireland. We have also seen a growth in a number of national advertising sectors such as Telecom, Finance, Travel and Grocery.
“There is a real momentum gathering pace within the group, with innovation and creativity at the heart of new launches.”
Within the overall revenue decline, digital advertising revenues rose from 11.4m in the first half of 2013 to £14.1m this year.
However print advertising revenue dropped from 78.1m to £70.8m in the same period.
Revenue from newspaper sales also fell but by a much smaller margin, from £41.6m in the first half of 2013 to £39.7m this year.
The group’s underlying operating costs fell by just under £5m, from 109.7m in 2013 to £104.8m.
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Nice of Ashley to thank all the hard-working staff for achieving these results…
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My local newspaper group has just stuck a leaflet through my door saying that if I subscribe to their digital news products for three months I will get a 30 per cent discount.
That’s all very well but the beauty of a printed newspaper is that I don’t have to buy it every day so that tomorrow I can purchase a different newspaper offering an alternative viewpoint on an issue.
Print offers the reader a much greater turnover of ideas whereas paid-for digital stifles freedom of expression.
Ps I wonder how long Ashley’s contract of employment is for?
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Glad to see profit again. Now INVEST in content and you will have even more profit! It’s not rocket science.
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I forgot, “You’ve all done very well”
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So, print advertising revenue down by £7.3 million, 9.3%. This is much worse than the other groups have been reporting and should be the biggest source of concern for everyone with an interest in JP. The Group is some way off matching the recovering advertising positions of the likes of Newsquest, Trinity Mirror and Local World. This doesn’t say much for the strategy and the top leadership. This weakness in print advertising will no doubt be glossed over.
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I’m still trying to work out how you get rid of £125m of debt so easily. Has it been written off or just a clever ‘smoke & mirrors’ magic trick?
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We all know AH is obsessed with figures. So here goes with mine…
£126.5m (revenue) – £104.8m (costs)= £19.8m (profit)
£181.6m + interest, fees etc (still owed) – £19.8m (profit) = -£161.8m + interest, fees etc (still owed)
Share price 4.15p and falling (as of 12.30 today)
I imagine the profit will probably just about cover the outstanding interest, fees etc when it comes time to pay the piper in 2015.
I’m no businessman, but am I right in saying JP could still be in as much debt now, after the results, as they were before?
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So there is “real momentum” gathering pace within JP, according to Mr Highfield. You can say that again, sunshine!
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It would help the conversation if HtFP would do a little bit of analysis instead of simply giving us the JP hand-out. Ashley likes to hide the bad news and he’s pretty good at it, especially when helped by lazy journalists.
The key word in all of this is underlying. He keeps getting rid of bits he doesn’t like and then telling us that the underlying profits are up. They might be, but actual profit is way down. Look at revenues – he says they are down from £142m to £136m. At this point last year, he said they were down to £160m. The difference is that he has sold off titles in Ireland at about £100m less than the company paid for them a few years ago. The company has also spent £30m on finance deals this year.
Operating profits for the first six months were £28.3m. – 10 years ago the company made £180m in 12 months. He’s right, there is momentum, but it is all towards being a much smaller company.
Expect more job cuts this year.
Incidentally, I am not criticising what he is doing – but a bit of honesty around the obvious outcome of his strategy would not go amiss. We are heading towards a much smaller company, but one which survives.
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