Johnston Press has claimed to have made its first increase in operating profit in almost seven year as it continues its target of cutting costs this year by £20m.
The newspaper publisher has revealed that its total revenue fell by 11.4 per cent during the 18-week period leading up to 4 May, although claims that the decline is slowing on a monthly basis despite advertising revenue down by 15.1 per cent, and display advertising down by 12.7 per cent and classified falling by 16.8 per cent, with employment and motor advertising the most affected.
Group circulation decline by 0.8 per cent year-on-year, although the company has said that it expects to see an improvement in circulation revenue over the full year, with a post relaunch revenue rise of around 6 per cent.
During the same period the company relaunched 183 of its newspaper titles, and began to roll out new websites for each of them, with the total digital audience for the company growing by 16.4 per cent in April to reach 11.6m. Digital revenues growth rate was placed at 32.2 per cent for the company, excluding the digital employment and business directory which grew by 8.1 per cent during the 18-week period.
The relaunches are scheduled to be have been completed by June.
Ashley Highfield, CEO of Johnston Press, commented: "For the first time in almost 7 years we are in a position to report a year-on-year increase in operating profit for the period. While the economic environment continued to be challenging, the implementation of our strategy progressed further with the successful completion of the relaunch of the vast majority of our titles, together with the further development of our digital business and the rollout of new hardware and software to all sales staff and journalists. With our reduced cost base and our continued focus on debt reduction, we remain on track to deliver a strong performance in 2013."
The company also reduced its debt following the injection of £10m from the decision to cancel News International’s print contract.