Irish advertising revenues for British newspaper group fall as profits return

ADVERTISING revenue in the Irish operations of British regional newspaper publisher, Johnston Press, fell 19.1% last year — even though the group, as a whole, returned to profit.

The Edinburgh-headquartered group, which owns 12 titles here that it has previously unsuccessfully attempted to sell, yesterday reported a pre-tax profit of £16.5 million (€19.2m) for 2010.

This is a significant reverse from the pre-tax loss of £113.8m generated in the previous year. Similarly, 2009’s operating loss of £90.6m was turned into a profit of £54.9m.