Johnston Press PLC Share News (JPR)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Johnston Press PLC on Wednesday said it anticipates its 2016 results will fall in the range of its expectations as it reported a fall in total revenue in the year to date.

The regional newspaper publisher said group revenue, stripping out any contribution from the 'i' newspaper it bought this year, declined 14% in the 17 weeks from January 3 to April 30. Revenue fell 14% in the first quarter and 12% in April, it said.

Advertising revenue declined 17%, with the rate of decline easing to 13% in April having dropped 18% in the first three months of the year. Digital revenue fell 5.7% in the first quarter but rose 4.5% in April, the company said.

Johnston Press said it completed the acquisition of the i newspaper on April 10 and daily print sales peaked at 297,849 during April, up 7.0% on the daily peak reported for March.

Johnston Press shares were down 1.9% to 38.75 pence.

By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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