Pain continues for newspaper groups

REGIONAL newspaper groups Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror are continuing to see a sharp slide in advertising revenues.

Johnston Press issued a profit warning today and said it had pulled the sales of its Irish titles. Despite “considerable interest” none of the bids were high enough.

Johnston was hoping a deal would relieve some of its £448m debt burden and is now in “constructive” talks with its lenders.

In the 19 weeks to May 9 total advertising revenues slumped 34% compared to the same period last year. It followed a 35.9% drop in the first nine weeks of the year.

But the group said there had been “greater stability” in recent weeks. It is still seeking to cuts costs by more than £30m, with non-recurring redundancy costs expected to come in at £8m.

In a statement it said: “Whilst these cost savings are encouraging they will not be sufficient to offset the fall in advertising revenues which are running below market expectations.

“This means that operating profit for 2009 is likely to be towards the lower end of current market expectations.”

Johnston owns a raft of 40 titles in the region including the Lancashire Evening Post, Lancaster Guardian, the Blackpool Gazette and the Burnley Express. The group’s flagship titles are the Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post.

Trinity Mirror, which publishes the Daily Mirror, the Liverpool Echo, The Liverpool Daily Post and a string of smaller papers said advertising revenue slumped 30% across the group in the 17 weeks to April 26. Its regional titles took a greater hit, with a slump of around 35%.

Even the group’s digital revenues, which had previously performed well despite the downturn, dropped 14% in the regions.

Trinity, which has net debts of £388m, said it was continuing to cut costs and, “will incur capital expenditure of no more than £25m for 2009”.