Johnston Press is expecting to announce profits above market expectations in its annual results next March.

A pre-close trading update hails strong advertising revenues, increased circulation of weekly titles, cost savings of more than £10m and improved revenue growth for the year ending march 2004.

The board expects market conditions to stay the same until then.

The update report said: “When combined with stable newsprint prices, tight management of costs and further efficiency gains throughout the Group, this should lead to another year of satisfactory progress in 2004.”

It added: “The circulations of our weekly titles continue to achieve modest overall growth and are now into their eighth successive year of increase.

“The focus of attention on our daily titles has resulted in some improvements, although we have yet to see a reversal in the trend of modest decline.

“We remain on track to deliver cost savings in 2003 of more than £10m in respect of last year’s acquisition of RIM. The business continues to perform well and progress remains ahead of our initial expectations.

“In overall terms, the improvement in revenue growth, coupled with continuing good control of costs, is expected to result in profits for the year to 31 December 2003 being above current market expectations.”

The group’s preliminary results announcement is scheduled for March 17.

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