In spite of a slump in profit for the half year ending 4 July 2015, Johnston Press has said that it traded well over the period, with digital revenues up 17.5%.
Described by group CEO Ashley Highfield as a “challenging” six months, digital revenues increased from £14.1 million to £16.5 million to account for 20.5% of advertising revenues – with digital audiences growing 20.4% to 19.9 million unique users a month.
However, the publisher – which saw its share price decline -1.59% on the morning the results were released – reported both yearly declines in total underlying revenues (-4.6% to £128.9 million) and operating profit (-4.3% to £27 million), with ad revenue also taking a -7.7% hit.
“Trading conditions in the first half of 2015 have undoubtedly been challenging, with May and June being particularly difficult – a time when there was also a high degree of uncertainty in the wider market,” said Highfield.
“However, we believe, local publishing, with SMEs representing 80% of our advertising revenue, is not as volatile as national publishing. We have seen some improvement in reducing the decline in advertising revenues in July compared to July 2014.”
Over the period Johnston Press’ average monthly audience across both print and digital, which includes approximately 250 regional brands, was up 8.7% year on year to 29.4 million.
Mobile also recorded strong growth between January and June 2015, with revenues almost doubling and the proportion of mobile inventory sold at premium rates growing 50%.
Highfield added that the company will “continue to drive for further improvement in revenues, albeit off a lower base, and will also continue to target further cost savings.”
