LONDON (Alliance News) - Regional newspaper publisher Johnston Press PLC on Tuesday said it swung to a pretax profit in its last financial year thanks to lower financing and operating costs and said it was confident on the prospects for the 'i' newspaper that it recently acquired.
The company said its pretax profit for the 52 weeks to January 2 was GBP2.9 million, compared to a GBP23.9 million loss a year earlier, which had been driven by restructuring costs, higher operating expenses, one-off legal costs and title closures.
Revenue declined to GBP245.1 million from GBP268.8 million and followed a familiar story for the publishing industry.
Digital advertising revenue increased 12% to GBP30.6 million in the year, but this was some way off sufficient to offset a 9.7% decline in print publishing revenue, which included a 12% fall in print advertising revenue.
Chief Executive Ashley Highfield said the challenging trading conditions seen in the second half of the financial year had continued into the first quarter of the current year, forcing the group to continue cutting costs, reset its portfolio and refocus in markets with attractive audience profiles.
Highfield did express optimism, however, on 'i', the newspaper Johnston Press acquired from the publisher of The Independent in February for GBP24.0 million.
Highfield said the acquisition will add national scale to Johnston Press's offering and should allow the group to accelerate its digital plans while helping to stabilise circulation revenue.
Johnston Press shares were up 17% to 47.82 pence early Tuesday, the best performer in the FTSE All-Share.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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