Johnston Press has seen its advertising revenues drop by 6.7 per cent in the past five months, compared to the same period last year.

In a pre-close trading update the group has said that, as predicted, the difficult trading conditions it experienced during the first half of the year have continued.

It said employment advertising had suffered most, in part due to particularly strong comparatives in 2004, with an overall reduction of 22.9 per cent.

After excluding the fast growing revenues generated from the Internet, the decline was 24.9 per cent.

Both the motors and retail have also seen a drop, but property revenues have continued to grow and other classified revenues were boosted by an increase in public notices due to the change in the licensing laws.

The update said newspaper sales revenues have grown, with increases in cover prices more than making up for a modest overall decline in circulations.

Internet revenues have continued to perform strongly, helped by the successful launch of a new directory service, and an increase of 29 per cent in online employment advertising was driven by strong growth from its CV matching service.

Overall the group said its expects to demonstrate another year of progress and also expects 2006 to be another satisfactory year for the group.

It said it does not anticipate any early marked improvement in advertising revenue streams, but would instead benefit from contributions made from its recent acquisitions, tight management of costs and further efficiency gains.

The group’s preliminary results will be announced in March.