AddThis SmartLayers

JP chairman says no plans to sell ‘significant’ number of newspapers

Camilla RhodesJohnston Press has no current plans to sell a further “significant” number of its newspapers, the company’s interim chairman has said.

Writing in the regional publisher’s annual report, Camilla Rhodes, left, said JP would continue to “monitor opportunities presented by the market” following the sale of 16 of its titles in the past year.

In August, JP sold the Isle of Man Examiner, Isle of Man Courier, Manx Independent to Tindle in a £4.25m deal.

This was followed in December by the sale of 13 papers in the East Midlands and East Anglia to Iliffe Media for £17m.

Discussing the sales in the report, Camilla wrote: “Although we have no current plans for further significant disposals we will continue to monitor opportunities presented by the market.”

In the report, chief executive Ashley Highfield also discussed a new publishing strategy which has seen JP focus on titles it runs in the “big cities” of Leeds, Sheffield and Edinburgh, as well as “digital growth towns”.

He wrote: “The aim of introducing one consistent and relevant content plan across the key city titles, increasing story count, sharpening focus on social media and campaigning with passion is to drive audience growth and we are seeing some signs of improving circulations trends across these titles.”

The company’s annual general meeting will be held at 11am on 22 May at the offices of Shurst LLP, on Appold Street, London.

Last month JP revealed in its annual results that it had recorded a pre-tax loss of £300m in 2016.

The report stated continued difficult trading conditions, which the company blamed partly on the Brexit vote, have forced it to write-down the value of its regional titles and other print assets by a total of £344m

8 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • April 24, 2017 at 11:11 am
    Permalink

    No, Camilla, you won’t be selling as you will be shutting papers down or moving them to online only. Nobody wants to buy any of JPs sub-core papers which were classified as such to attract sales. They have been run into the ground so why buy them? It would be more financially efficient to put any investment funds into starting from scratch. AH in the same report hints again that he has little time for smaller papers and is concentrating on big cities and towns.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(20)
  • April 24, 2017 at 11:17 am
    Permalink

    Camilla wrote: “Although we have no current plans for further significant disposals we will continue to monitor opportunities presented…”
    So that means come on down they will happily sell if the price is right.
    As for old AH and his “….new publishing strategy which has seen JP focus on titles it runs in the “big cities” of Leeds, Sheffield and Edinburgh..”
    Bad news if you work for JP in any other location then
    and interesting to see him focus on social media too… no mention of investing in the printed products or did i miss it?

    I’ll bet the general meeting late May will be a cracker , standing room only I would imagine;
    ‘..point number one on the agenda how did you lose £300 million last year?

    ‘Nothing to see here, move along now’

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(28)
  • April 24, 2017 at 11:22 am
    Permalink

    I thought JP’s troubles were down to the fact that they AREN’T selling newspapers.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(16)
  • April 24, 2017 at 1:39 pm
    Permalink

    Nothing much left of value anyway. You can only sell off so much, time to start investing and remembering the smaller community titles.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(13)
  • April 24, 2017 at 3:11 pm
    Permalink

    Having burnt £300.000,000 last year they will be under intense pressure from shareholders to claw back money any which way they can so take “..no current plans to sell a further “significant” number of its newspapers…” as meaning “significant number” as in groups or bundles no bvaise no one wants them but
    Individual titles can be had, make us an offer.
    Unless I’m wrong then perhaps the interim chairman will confirm no further titles will be sold and instead, to develop the titles and serve a community,money will be invested in them?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(14)
  • April 24, 2017 at 5:35 pm
    Permalink

    Through not fault of the overworked and inexperienced staff a lot of JP papers cannot have much value now the firm has ripped them apart.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(7)
  • April 25, 2017 at 2:23 pm
    Permalink

    How does “improving circulation trends” equate with all papers losing circulation…?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(7)
  • April 27, 2017 at 9:42 am
    Permalink

    Sell their newspapers? Johnston Press have made such a total mess of them, they couldn’t GIVE them away.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(3)