Johnston Press sees continued print and ad revenue decline of 8% for second half of 2011
Johnston Press has announced that its print and digital advertising revenue has fallen by 8% during the second half of the year to date.
The publisher of The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday announced the drop in its interim management statement this morning that in comparison with the same period last year, following a year-on-year decline of 10% during the first half of 2011.
Meanwhile it has also said that its total circulation had declined by 1.6% during this period, following the decline of 1.7% during the first half of the year.
Also in decline was the group’s largest revenue category, display advertising, falling by 3.4% during the second half, while employment revenue fell by 19.2%, having declined during the first half by 30.4%.
However, digital revenue continued to grow, with an increase of 4.4%, with the company introducing a ‘Find it’ option in its Business Directory having redesigned its website to improve revenues in recent weeks.
Digital employment revenue was impacted by the quiet jobs market, and the company has said that it expects to be continued to be affected by the reduction in employment revenue within its print products, which will impact on its digital upsell.
The progress of daily deal site ‘DealMonster’ which launched in September was also described as ‘encouraging’.
The company was also able to reduce its debt from £386.7m to £357m by 5 November as it continued its cost saving strategy of £20m.