Johnston Press PLC Trading Statement (5253Y)
May 18 2016 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMJPR
RNS Number : 5253Y
Johnston Press PLC
18 May 2016
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. GBP8m
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-
Enquiries
Johnston Press
Ashley Highfield, Chief
Executive 020 7612 2601
David King, CFO 020 7612 2602
Bell Pottinger
Dan de Belder 020 3772 2561
Zoë Pocock 020 3772 2574
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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