Johnston press repeats desire to sell regional titles

Johnston Press has said it is continuing to look into the possibility of selling off some of its regional newspaper titles following the group’s acquisition of The i, their first foray into national territories.

This follows the news that Johnston has suffered a 13.7% drop in revenues over the last four months. In a recent trading report, the company said: ““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.”

“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.

“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.”

This is not good news for the publisher who were recently warned by the credit ratings agency Standard and Poor that the company faces an unsustainable debt burden if its revenues continue to fall. S&P slashed Johnston’s long-term rating by two steps from B to CCC+.

Despite increased investment in online titles, these figures include a 5.7% decline in digital revenues over the first quarter of the year.

Earlier this year, the publisher identified a list of 59 titles which it considers “sub-core”. These titles fell outside of the groups selected markets, did not match the company’s core audience or failed to reach digital growth targets desired by the group.

The list includes many of Johnston’s Scottish titles including Scotland on Sunday, alongside smaller titles like The Buchan Observer, The Deeside Piper and The Ellon Times. This is interesting move for the Edinburgh-based business with deep roots north of the border. Journalists at the “sub-core” titles will undoubtedly be concerned about their future despite Johnston’s insistence that this list is not a catalogue of titles for sale.