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Further announcements ‘expected soon’ in Johnston Press sell-off plan

Johnston Press logoRegional publisher Johnston Press says it expects to make further announcements soon in its plan to dispose of some of its local newspaper assets.

Last month the company announced it was selling its Isle of Man titles to Tindle Newspapers for £4.25m in the first of a series of planned disposals designed to “rebalance” its portfolio.

In a half-year trading update today, JP said it was “well advanced” in discussions on other potential sales with further announcements expected soon.

Today’s report also showed a 9pc drop in overall revenues for the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2015, with operating profit down 15.5pc from £26m to £22m.

The group said it had continued to experience “challenging advertising trading conditions” during the period, although it said there had been “signs of improvement” prior to the referendum over membership of the European Union.

It said: “It is too early to assess the impact of the vote to leave the European Union on revenues, with local display advertising outside London showing resilience in some markets and weakness in others.”

On the planned disposals, it said: “The sale of our titles on the Isle of Man for £4.25m, which we announced on 4 July 2016, and which is the first in our programme of disposals, is nearing completion, with further announcements expected soon.

“The Group is actively exploring opportunities for the disposal of further assets. Further announcements will be made in due course.”

In the update, JP said the roll-out of its ‘Newsroom of the Future’ project across its local titles was now complete and that as a result web traffic had grown by 22.4pc and social media traffic by 60pc.

It said its digital audience now stood at 24.8m unique users while its total audience, across both print and digital, was now 32.7m, up 8pc year on year.

Chief executive Ashley Highfield commented: “The market continues to be challenging and uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the Brexit negotiations has caused further softness in some segments of the advertising market, in June and July.

“Nevertheless, we are focused on our strategy of increasing overall audiences, maximising opportunities for the i, maintaining tight cost control and rebalancing our portfolio. In that respect, we are nearing completion of the disposal of our Isle of Man newspaper group for £4.25 million and are well advanced in negotiations for further divestments.”

National organiser Laura Davison said: “Taking on extra debt and flogging off other assets will not result in salvation for Johnston Press. Our members see the actual reality in the company’s newsrooms day in and day out.

“Unfortunately, as those who have gone through the transformational ‘Newsroom of the Future’ editorial programme will testify, things are certainly no better on the other side.

“There must be questions in the minds of the board and shareholders about whether this is the right strategy for the company, though Ashley Highfield seems intent on pressing on despite all the warning lights flashing on the dashboard.”

17 comments

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  • August 4, 2016 at 8:46 am
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    I noticed lots of share activity yesterday with almost every transaction being a ‘buy’. I assumed there was a city rumour that JP performance was healthy. Seems like it was misguided investors who failed to realise this zombie company just goes from bad to worse.

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  • August 4, 2016 at 10:30 am
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    Worrying times again for staff, I bet there will be the usual September/October redundancies just in time for xmas.
    Staff will fighting to leave.

    Im surprised investors put up with Highfields rubbish. A few years ago I sold some JP free shares for over £1000, today they would be valued at £10, which wouldn’t cover the share transaction fee. I guess Tindle doesn’t care as he got a good deal on the recent purchase and wouldn’t surprise me if he is buying more up.

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  • August 4, 2016 at 11:03 am
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    In 2005 just before JP bought The Scotsman the operating profit for the full year was £151.4m. In 2010 the figure for the first half of the year was £40.5m. Today’s figures really are quite depressing.

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  • August 4, 2016 at 2:03 pm
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    The Telegraph has a good insight into what this means, JP has written off almost half the value of its local titles.

    For God’s sake Ashley. Get a grip or get out.

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  • August 4, 2016 at 2:48 pm
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    Shares at just 10p at one point today. Junk stock. Receiver in waiting.

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  • August 4, 2016 at 4:40 pm
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    Another nail in the civic and democratic role of regional journalism.

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  • August 4, 2016 at 5:10 pm
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    OK, this is pretty awful, but what the heck do you do with that debt and a largely inexperienced senior team?

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  • August 4, 2016 at 5:12 pm
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    The problem is that JP are churning out poor quality papers and advertisers don’t want to be associated with them. Good luck to the new owners.

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  • August 4, 2016 at 5:50 pm
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    To be expected really, the naive approach to cost cutting has taken away most of the new product development capability they had, leaving a skeleton crew for day to day support.
    Still got the well paid talkers, but hardly any doers it can only go one way.

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  • August 4, 2016 at 6:08 pm
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    Saddle your horse, Ashley, and ride into the sunset. Nobody’s listening to your nonsense anymore.

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  • August 6, 2016 at 9:50 am
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    Wow. that’s one hell of a slide. The share has lost over 90% of it’s value inside a year. (On 7th August 2015, the share price stood at 114, and today it’s 10.5).
    The latest Ashley-o-gram sent out to staff yesterday had the usual rhetoric about “challenging conditions”, but precious little on what the board is planning to do to reverse the situation.
    This week, there have been massive IT problems within Johnston Press with workers unable to log onto their terminals. And because the company have centralised everything onto the one server, it’s been impossible to get any work done. J.P. must have lost a fortune in revenue, but even this pales into insignificance when one considers the harm that it’s own board is doing to it’s products. So many of them look tacky, cheap and full of filler ads.
    With it’s idea of recycling content, the Newsroom of the Future idea has proven itself to be a complete dud.
    We have already been informed that we will not be getting a pay-rise this year, and based on the plummeting numbers, I would imagine that it’s going to be the same for the foreseeable future.
    Morale is going the same way as the share price; a historic low and the company, which usually solicits the opinions of it’s workers by questionnaire in the first quarter of every year, hasn’t bothered this year. But take it from me, it is a terrible, miserable company to work for. Roll on the inevitable redundancy.

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  • August 6, 2016 at 5:34 pm
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    Highfield has done some good things, he has innovated but where it has gone wrong are the key elements of the business – publishing ability and revenues.
    He has invested and trusted in the wrong people, the wrong thinking, the wrong direction.
    A great shame, this was a company that had a chance despite it all but Ashley was missing one key element and never got it right, he needs to look at those who are creating and implementing the wrong strategy as they are failing him and they know it. A sad day at 10p.

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  • August 7, 2016 at 12:37 pm
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    My local paper supplied by JP in Portstewart, Northern Ireland is ridiculous. Spelling mistakes and bad reporting.

    Also their online news is spammed several times over social media. It’s a worrying time for staff I agree but they have brought it upon themselves.

    Either be ahead, or be left behind.

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  • August 9, 2016 at 7:48 pm
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    Thomas. They have destroyed every newspaper they’ve touched in Northern Ireland. Circulations of the weeklies have been halved. Dire quality. Cover prices £1.50, and now this insulting (to staff and public) Newsroom of the Future. I was in a newsagents this morning to be met by an unsold pile of our once-terrific local paper. The flimsy News Letter was the most expensive of the provincial dailies. What JP has done is a total disgrace. It’s total despair. There are still the remnants of talented staff in the face of the major cull but their views count for nothing. It’s like looking at the embers of a forest ravaged by a major blaze. Digital simply hasn’t worked and there isn’t a solution anymore.

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  • August 17, 2016 at 11:47 am
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    Thomas/Harold. They destroyed their titles in the Republic of Ireland also! An utter joke! ‘Life is Local’ was an insult to the staff they made redundant. Good riddance to them. I sympathise with those poor people who work for JP!!!

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