Member Info for jamesmaggs

Fingers crossed for tomorrow chaps!

Well not much happening today,marginally up on a red day but with negliable volume its a tough one to call mate. I guess the board will be a busy one wednesday but will be keeping an eye on tomorrows activity levels,in many ways if we're going up I'd rather it was a steady climb than a massive spike with the inevitable retrace(but if that spike was really massive........one can dream!!!).

Any thoughts ahead of Wednesday?

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2133467/The-Scotsman-owner-Johnston-Press-poised-bank-agreement.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Plus it's worth noting the margins they work on which will no doubt be taken on board by the lenders as well as the other factors?

Fingers crossed they do pay a premium mate,my overview here is that we have all the hallmarks of a steady recovery but over what timescale I have no idea,hopefully next week will be the start! GLA

Theres been plenty of material to read through the last couple of days but I guess the low volume indicates all eyes are on what happens next week. GLA

Good to see us back over 3 quid before tomorrows div drop

Interesting points made there. A year or so back there was a clip in the torygraph suggesting 'cost saving synegies' with talk of further consolidation with trinity and I always assumed that jp would be the winner on that one,heard nothing since on that topic. Beginning to wish I'd bought a few more at 5p myself, mind you if they get going post results/debt renegs a penny here or there will hopefully( I'm biased!!) be dwarfed from the subsequent relief rally and sustainable recovery,maybe! My hunch is the lenders will support as they can service the debt since the locals are profitable and maybe more sustainable than the nationals?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/11/tindle-increases-share-johnston-press   http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-keep-calm-carry-on-and-dont-charge-for-news-johnstons-highfield-says/      http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/johnston-press-ceo-signals-move-to-digital-first-/s2/a548471/ Thanks again for taking the time to read this. I hope you managed to enjoy the glimpse of summer we have seen - that’s almost certainly it for the year!   Best Ashley

The chief executive of Johnston Press (JP) has signalled that the local newspaper publisher will adopt a digital-first strategy. Speaking at the Guardian Changing Media Summit, Ashley Highfield, who took over as CEO in November, said "we will flip the model to digital first". Highfield, who has held senior roles at the BBC and Microsoft, said the group was "not in a panic situation" over digital transformation, but admitted that "local press hasn't done a very good job of promoting digital". He said there is a huge difference in the traffic of the different JP local news sites: "Web far exceeds print circulation [for some publications] and in other cases web is a single digit of a percentage of newspaper sales." He revealed that newspaper sites that have not embraced Twitter generally receive around one tenth the number of hits of those sites with a focus on social media. Highfield said the launch of 140 regional newspaper phone apps before Christmas has added two million unique users. The "whole new audience is a younger, male, more up-market demography", he explained. Asked about his thoughts on paywalls, Highfield said: "The bread and butter of regional is community and you have to keep sites by and large free to do that." He suggested that other Johnston Press titles will follow the Scotsman, in launching paid-for iPad apps. "Most of our dailies will have iPad and mobile apps over next few months," he said. However, he suggested a lesser belief in charging for mobile app content, favouring revenue generated through ads. Highfield was positive about print revenues. "Every one of our newspapers is profitable," he said, but admitted to "make more money out of digital we still have a long way to go". He said the local newspaper group is aiming for around 20 per cent profit margins. "In the past [the local newspaper business] was a huge cash cow … and to say the wind was been knocked out of its sales is an understatement, it's seismic." He said some Johnston Press print titles had increased in circulation with others seeing 3 or 4 per cent decline. For regional newspapers "you have to keep close to your local audience," he said, and to do so "you have got to move in to digital".

We have been talking to the banks about our debt. Re-financing comes round every couple of years, and our current agreement is due for renewal in September so we wanted to get well ahead of the curve and get it all done now. As you may have seen, we put back the date of our announcement of last year’s results to April 25 so that we would be in a better position to tell the City about where we’ve got to on re-financing. At the same time we’ll also be taking the City analysts and journalists through the details of our new strategy.   On the digital side of the business, things have been powering ahead. The huge uplift in traffic we saw in the early part of the year following the launch of the mobile sites has been maintained with our sites consistently attracting over 10 million visitors in each of the last three months. Digital revenue growth across the business is also very encouraging with some companies really excelling at local online display in particular. Keep up the good work!   Last week we launched our second iPad app, for the Yorkshire Post, which is already approaching 1,000 downloads, and we have more apps in the pipeline. The Scotsman iPad app which we launched two months ago, initially on a free trial, has now sold over 500 paid for monthly subscriptions.   Overall, our markets remains tough, but there are signs of improvement. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Mediaforce, our national sales agency, over the last couple of months, looking at how we can grow this incredibly important part of the business. Local display advertising had a strong month in March, as did circulation numbers – thank you to everyone for a really impressive effort. Let’s see if we can repeat this in the second quarter.   Over the next two months, I’ll be visiting The Shields Gazette in South Shields, News Guardian and News Post Leader in Whitley Bay, The Morpeth Herald, The Star and Sheffield Telegraph, Doncaster Free Press, Worksop Guardian, Derbyshire Times and the Mansfield/Ashfield Chad.   Finally, I’ve been trying to air some of my views about my confidence in the future of JP in conferences and interviews – some links to coverage follow. The story is landing well, and the copy has worked out fine and mostly accurate, although you obviously can’t control the headlines – am not sure I’ll ever live down the one in the Sunday Times!

AH Blog Post No 2 March has been quite a different month for me compared to the first four that I’ve been here. I’ve been spending most of my time focussed on getting the new strategy finalised, turning that into an operational plan for the next year, and working with Grant Murray on the re-financing of our debt with the banks. I’m pleased to say that both of these big slugs of work are nearing completion, which will enable me to turn my attention back to spending more time with staff across the business and sharing the exciting plans with you all.   Firstly the strategy. There are three main components: refreshing our entire portfolio of titles across print, online and mobile; giving the sales teams the right tools, technology, and working practices to help you get your job done easier; and getting JP organised in the best way for the future. All of which are aimed at ensuring we don’t just survive but thrive in the coming months and years.   I’ve put a strategy presentation together that I’ve already shared with the board and last Friday with the MDs, and now this week we’re having an off-site in Leeds with all the editors, to get their feedback on where we’ve got to. Many of the plans are based on the hundreds of suggestions you’ve made either directly to me, to your line managers, or through the teams (‘V-teams’) we set up to look at audience, content, subscriptions, classifieds, display advertising, digital and staff satisfaction. I’ve got to say it’s looking really good and I’m hugely energised and excited and hope you will be too.   To that end, just yesterday morning I did a 10-minute piece to camera explaining the strategy and plans in more detail, and you’ll all get a chance to see this video very soon on The Word which will hopefully answer many questions you have about where we’re headed, and probably prompt a load more comments which you can e-mail directly to me. In addition, all the MDs and editors will set up sessions to take you through the plans and take questions.   On the sales side of the business, I attended a great day in Peterborough recently with all the senior sales staff. They were told about the plans to invest in specialist sales software on an iPad platform for all sales execs, and new tools and resources to help better upsell existing advertisers, identify strong new leads and sell all of them higher value packages.   We have been talking to the banks about our debt. Re-financing comes round every couple of years, and our current agreement is due for renewal in September so we wanted to get well ahead of the curve and get it all done now. As you may have seen, we put back the date of our announcement of last year’s results to April 25 so that we would be in a better position to tell the City about where we’ve got to on re-financing. At the same time we’ll also be ta

Sir Ray Tindle, head of Tindle Newspapers, which owns over 200 titles, has increased his shares in rival Johnston Press. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian Sir Ray Tindle, head of family-owned regional newspaper group TindleNewspapers, has increased his stake in rival Johnston Press for the third time in as many months. Farnham-based Tindle, which owns more than 200 weekly newspapers such as the Bexley Mercury and The Cornish Times, has increased its stake from 6.36% to 7.17%. The move consolidates Tindle's position as the third-largest shareholder in Johnston Press. Johnston Press's two biggest shareholders are Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan's PanOcean Management with 20% and an investment company, Orbis Holdings, with 10.7%. Tindle has been quoted as saying he is not interested in a takeover of Johnston Press, but is investing because he believes that newspapers are undervalued at the moment. Johnston Press, which has ushered in a new chief executive in former BBC and Microsoft executive Ashley Highfield, is languishing with a share price of less than 5p. The company's market capitalisation is just £30m. It has a debt burden of £370m. Tindle first moved to boost its stake in Johnston Press to 4.36% in August becoming its fourth biggest shareholder. In September the company boosted it to 6.36%.

Good stuff. On the earlier subject I've been 'oping to get rid of my 3p ones ever since I bought the things!!! ATB mate

Theres a small clip in this weeks IC which reads as follows 'Composting technology specialist TEG has postponed publication of its results as it continues with a review that could lead to a sale of the business. Even if a buyer emerges,investors are unlikely to see the shares return to the level at which we tipped them. Nonetheless,at 8p,there could be value to be had in the event of a sale. Buy.' .........that's what they say verbatim,good luck!! Hi Riddler hope all good your end? Yes I'm in these too!

Most of us lot consider those factors 'priced in' but what is yet to be priced in are the most recent results and crucially the terms of the debt renegs.

Well at least yell went up a bit!! A few delayed biggish ones but dont see a major problem here as low volume rather than a mass exodus. I think the wait will be worth it,my only frustration being the temptation to buy more if they stay around these levels having already "set out my stall". Might just go back to sleep for a couple of weeks on these unless i see any major swings or hefty volume, GLA!!

Heavier here but happy to hold,got the email from investor relations this morning and take some confidence from the "constructive" part,clearly they want to announce it all at the same time and a few impatient/over extended speccers have bailed,up to them,their money!!

Funny posting you here as well as yell mind you more optimistic on here than yell in the short term. Happy to see we briefly flirted with 8,will be happier when we are flirting with somewhat higher numbers,so calm on here currently lol.