Johnston Press has announced that its 2006 pre-tax profits were down 6% to £146.7 million.
In a statement released today, the Edinburgh based group said that revenues this year would be similar to those recorded for 2006.
Digital revenues at he publisher were up 36% to 11.3 million for 2006.
However, it also said that its advertising revenues for the first nine months of the year were down by 2.9% on the prior year, adding that this was due to the overall trading situation.
Roger Parry, chariman of Johnston Press, said: “In the early weeks of 2007 income from advertising in print products is slightly down on the levels of the same period last year which reflects continued growth in property but further declines in motors, recruitment and display.
“However, the rate of decline is reducing and accordingly the board believes that we will continue to see an improvement in the year-on-year performance over the coming months.
“Our online revenue continues to grow rapidly but from a small base. In the broader context, we believe the main issues relating to advertising volumes are linked to overall economic conditions rather than online migration.”
Parry added: “The investments in our new print operations and ongoing enhancements to our operating systems will bring benefits during 2007 but overall we expect revenues to be at a similar level to 2006. With newsprint and other underlying costs rising, our efforts will continue to be focused on maximising the efficiency of the business and pursuing initiatives to drive new revenue growth both in print and online.”
In January, Johston Press acquired the Scottish Newspaper operations of Archant for £11.2 million (see Johnston Press Acquires Archant Scottish Titles).
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