Trading Statement

18 May 2016

Johnston Press plc

Trading statement

Johnston Press plc is issuing a trading update, for the 17 week period from 3 January 2016 to 30 April 2016, ahead of its 2016 Annual General Meeting later today.

The sector has continued to experience challenging trading conditions and volatility in the advertising market in the first quarter, which began to show signs of improvement in April. Johnston Press remains focused on increasing audiences, providing creative solutions for our advertisers, further cost reduction and integration and growth within the i.

At this point, the Board expects performance for the full year to be within the range of market expectation.

Revenue Trends

Group revenue fell by 13.7% on an adjusted* basis over the period, reflecting a 14.4% decline in the first quarter and an improved rate of decline of 11.5% in April.

Advertising revenues for the period were down 16.9%, following a 17.9% decline in Q1 against strong year-on-year comparatives but with an improved rate of decline of 13.2% in April. Digital revenues were down 5.7% in Q1 but up 4.5% in April. This reflected two contrasting trends: although digital employment revenues were down 22.8% in the period, digital display and transaction revenues were up 5.8% in Q1 and 15.6% in April, driven by strong growth in 1XL and Google ad word sales. Digital audience grew by 22.7% on average year on year to 24.1m unique users in April 2016 (April 2015: 19.3m).

Acquisition of the i and Product Development

Johnston Press completed the acquisition of the i newspaper on 10 April 2016. Daily print sales peaked at 297,849 in April (unaudited), a growth of 7% over the March 2016 peaks. On 10 May we launched the newspaper into Northern Ireland. inews.co.uk launched on 14 April, reaching 638,000 unique users in the first month and consuming 1.8m page views. 

The Group has continued to invest in relaunching websites for our primary titles including rolling out 15 new fully responsive, mobile-first platforms giving users a better, faster experience on any device. Over half of the total audience visiting JP news sites now view content on a responsive site.

Disposals

Following the completion of the i acquisition, we continue to explore the disposal of certain assets, with a view to deleveraging the balance sheet and further reducing financing costs.

BBC

On 12 May 2016, the Government published the White Paper on the Charter Review of the BBC. Simultaneously, The News Media Association ("the NMA"), the print industry trade body, co-announced a landmark partnership agreement between regional press and the BBC that would see an annual commitment of c. £8m from the BBC to regional press to fund initially 150 journalists to cover council reporting. As part of the agreement the BBC will also supply video, text, and data content to regional press for use on our web sites and papers. The BBC has also agreed to an independent audit of content on their sites to improve attribution and linking to regional publications. (Johnston Press represents c.18.6% of the regional and local press industry).

*Adjusted excludes the impact of the acquisition of the i and makes adjustments for the closure of a number of print titles and digital products in 2015.

-ENDS-

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