Johnston Press PLC Regulatory News (JPR)

13 Dec 2005 07:01

Johnston Press PLC13 December 2005 Johnston Press plc Press Announcement 13 December 2005 PRE-CLOSE TRADING UPDATE Johnston Press plc issues the following trading update relating to the secondhalf of the financial year ending 31 December 2005 and ahead of the Group'spreliminary results announcement scheduled for 8 March 2006. The Chief Executive's statement of 31 August 2005 envisaged a continuation ofthe difficult trading conditions experienced during the first half. That periodsaw a progressive reduction in like-for-like advertising revenues with the monthof July down 3%. Against stronger comparatives from the second half of 2004,like-for-like advertising revenues decreased by 6.7% for the five months ended30 November 2005. Employment advertising suffered most, in part due to particularly strongcomparatives in 2004, with an overall reduction of 22.9%. After excluding thefast growing revenues generated from the internet, the decline was 24.9%.Reflecting the difficult market conditions in both the motors and retailsectors, these categories also fell back against the prior year. With vendorshaving to work harder, property revenues continued to grow as did otherclassified revenues which were boosted by a benefit to public notices from thechange in the licensing laws. Newspaper sales revenues continued to grow over the period with increases incover prices more than offsetting a modest overall decline in circulations. Internet revenues continued to perform strongly helped by the successful launchof a new directory service. An increase of 29.0% in on-line employmentadvertising was driven by strong growth from our recently launched CV matchingservice and increased packaging of added-value on-line services with our printpublications. A new on-line auction capability was launched at the beginning ofDecember. With the clearance of our acquisition of Local Press Limited coming close to theyear-end and completion of the Leinster Leader Group deal imminent, the onlysignificant contribution from acquisitions in the period will be from ScorePress Limited. Taking account of this contribution and the current tradingenvironment, together with continued cost control and further investment forefficiencies, profits before non-recurring costs for the year, compared with the53 week results in 2004, are expected to demonstrate another year of progress. The recent announcement by DMGT that it may dispose of Northcliffe, its regionalnewspaper publishing subsidiary, confirms the Group's long held view thatownership changes and consolidation in the sector are likely to continue. Whilstwe will take an interest in developments, this will only be done in the contextof creating value for our shareholders and in the belief that this is unlikelyto be the last significant structural change in our industry. Looking forward, the Board does not anticipate any early marked improvement inadvertising revenue streams. With the benefit of a full year's contribution fromour recently announced acquisitions, tight management of costs, furtherefficiency gains and allowing for an anticipated increase in newsprint prices,the Board expects 2006 to be another satisfactory year for the Group. Contact: Tim Bowdler, Chief Executive orStuart Paterson, Chief Financial OfficerJohnston Press plc Tel: 0131 225 3361 Richard Oldworth/Suzanne BrocksBuchanan Communications Tel: 020 7466 5000 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange