Strong i performance and increased digital revenue bolster Johnston Press

Despite a significantly stronger performance in advertising revenues from the i newspaper and in the digital space, Johnston Press saw total revenues fall almost 8% to £103m during the first half of the year, on the back of a large dip in classified print advertising sales.

Discounting the classifieds, Johnston did see just short of a 5% improvement to £85.6m with online ads returning a 14.8% improvement and an all-time high in audience engagement.

"Digital revenues (excluding classifieds) have outweighed the declines in print advertising revenues," said Ashley Highfield, Johnston Press’s chief executive.

He also noted that performance of the i newspaper had been "fantastic" since the acquisition, with circulation revenues rising to £11m with operating profits of £3.7m.

While it anticipates a difficult future for the classifieds wing, digital display advertising has grown 25% on last year.

EBITDA was down 13.7% to £19.7m on the £22.8 the group posted at the same time in 2016.

Statutory earnings per share came in at -5.4p, which was an improvement on the 26 weeks leading to 2 July 2016 when the company posted a loss of 140.8p.

By the closing the bell the stock had dropped 4.13% to 10.55p.