Johnston Press full-year revenues decline on lower newspaper sales

Newspaper printing group Johnston Press has posted a drop in full-year revenues in line with market expectations, but announced the award of a new contract with Express newspapers group.The group has won a five-year contract to print Express Newspapers in the north of England, with printing of the Daily Express, Daily Star, Sunday Express and Daily Star Sunday beginning at Johnston's Dinnington site in Sheffield from July.For 2014, revenue declined 7.3% to £268.8m, but on an underlying basis earnings fell by just 4.4%. The group posted a much lessened pre-tax loss of £23.9m, almost half that of a year before.Johnston Press said its results continued to be affected by "challenging economic conditions" in some parts of the UK, but noticed an increase in economic confidence towards the end of the year.Newspaper sales declined 4.8% to £77.9m due to an increase in cover prices. The company said statutory contract printing revenue was down 39.6% year-on-year as a result of the termination of a contract with News International contract in 2013.However, the group's digital revenues rose by 20% to £28.8m thanks to the launch of new products and national platforms for local businesses like SkyAdsmart and 1XL.Chief executive Ashley Highfield said: "The strong growth in our digital audiences and accelerated growth of digital revenues, aided by the roll-out of Digital Kitbag and the launch of Sky Adsmart and 1XL are changing the shape of the company."Numis analysts said: "We will need to tweak numbers for the new print contract and hope for more detail in the meeting. We retain our hold, Trinity Mirror remains our preferred play of the newspaper players."Shares were down 0.33% to 168.9p on Wednesday at 09:06.