SCOTTISH MEDIA company Johnston Press, which owns 12 regional titles in the Republic, said yesterday that the pace of decline in advertising sales has slowed since the end of June.

In an interim management statement, Johnston Press said advertising fell by 22.1 per cent in the first 18 weeks of the second half of its financial year – the period between July 1st and November 3rd. This compared with a decline of 32.7 per cent in the first six months of the year.

The company said improvements in property-related advertising had been offset by a “continued decline” in recruitment ads. It said “greater stability” in ad revenue, combined with “reducing declines in circulation” and “continued progress” on cost savings left it “confident” it could deliver an operating profit “in line with current market expectations”.

It did not comment on its Irish titles' trading, including the Kilkenny People, the Limerick Leaderand the Tallaght Echo.

Chief executive John Fry said: “In broad terms, Ireland has been more difficult than the UK, primarily due to difficulties in the housing market and jobs.” Johnston closed its printing press in Kilkenny in October, and Mr Fry said printing has been transferred to Limerick or its plant at Carn, Portadown, Co Armagh.

It also closed a printing plant in Edinburgh. It said the “cash exceptional costs” of these closures would be close to £12 million (€13.26 million) this year while it wrote off £20 million relating to the presses’ book value. It said £50 million worth of cost reductions would be implemented in the second half of the year. It tried to sell its titles in the Republic in February, but the bids were too low.

Sales at its Irish titles fell 22.68 per cent last year to £18.6 million. The company last year took a £134 million impairment charge relating to its Irish titles’ value. Its last annual report showed a debt of €173.6 million outstanding for the Irish papers.