Johnston Press Share Discussion Threads

[netcurtains] 25/1/2017 08:40

Is winning the DAILY MAIL print contract a good thing or bad or neither?

[firw00d] 25/1/2017 07:39

Hopefully they won't throw a wet towel over it like they generally do

[baticle] 25/1/2017 07:16

Bit of good news providing an unexpected boost, keeps things ticking over and utilises the assets

[karlos885] 25/1/2017 00:22

optimistic options Eddy :) I think the company is ripe for breaking up. The problem with buying all the company is i think you are now buying many bad assets which will need to be disposed off and thus don't get full value. Competitors will know that almost any asset apart from a few are for sale , thus don't need to takeover the company, when eventually they may just have their choice at auction!

The I is the one bright light in the dark tunnel. As the circulation has been growing they have managed the growth incredibly well (ones suspects well budgeted), not over printing. Something which they have managed to do so far very well. I suspect this is because they haven't had to manage any large falls in circulation yet. As good as they I is, the cover price does seem to be creeping up all the time.....

[dazzaa] 24/1/2017 22:30

Gosh eddy if only, I'm in a bedsit now sharing a bunk bed as the mrs chucked me out saying I was in love with some woman called jpr and spending too much time chatting to her I told I didn't love jpr and was only superficially attracted she said how long had the affair been going on I told her ten years maybe more, do you think the mattresses will wait for me?

[dazzaa] 24/1/2017 22:02

Nor me, my impression is that the i is selling well and judging by the increase in full page adds and as you say eddy the the shops always seem to have run out or on their last copies.

The share price to the newbies seems to be just waiting to take off but experience with this share over time grinds you down.

[stdyeddy] 24/1/2017 20:23

dazz, I was very sad to see that the US attorney general has raided your mattress!



I'm hoping that this is just the spare cash mattress in your other room and not the master mattress containing the main horde.

[stdyeddy] 24/1/2017 15:57

Thanks for that unwelcome news karlos. Have just checked and you appear to be right.
Some nice stats and analysis available here - aimed primarily at advertisers so it shows a lot of what we're interested in:

hxxp://www.newsworks.org.uk/Market-Overview

You'll notice how jpr's digital efforts for the i appear less than amazing. Admittedly it started from a low base but given the network they're using (links from all the regional jpr titles) it seems like a meagre result. Daily circulation for print appears to have fallen significantly from last year if these figures are right. Not the impression I had, but the numbers suggest otherwise.

[karlos885] 24/1/2017 12:33

Latest weekly circa figures show the I down 1.7% must be their first decline.

[netcurtains] 24/1/2017 12:23

stdyeddy: When your back is to the wall, use all your cards. Politics should change to meet new challenges.

England was at its height as an independent nation before the Act of Union (eg 18th Century was Englands greatest century). Small WESTERN nations clearly have the edge. The UK , like a big old PLC would do best broken up into its constituent parts.

The Scotsman is failing because its churning out the same old same old same old failed POLITICS and ECONOMICS - its time to break it all up - even the UK... For the good of all people living in Britain. The Scotsman and the Yorkshire post need to be sold off and their politics turned on their heads. Let JPR be totally broken up for the benefit of all. Likewise the UK

[stdyeddy] 24/1/2017 12:12

beefcurtains - unfortunately the scots will probably go at some point and that'll be another kick in the nuts for the UK as we retreat into national irrelevance, warm beer and sofa-bound television addiction. As for politics in papers - I'd prefer jpr to sell papers using good journalism and effective marketing. Politics shouldn't be a sales tool. One of the benefits of a free press is the dissemination of truth which reveals the true nature and motives of politicians. Newspaper proprietors with a massive political agenda are ruining this country. And that's all I'm saying on that front - let's stick to good old, honest capitalism on this board.

[netcurtains] 24/1/2017 11:43

stdyeddy: My view is Scottish Indy2 might happen... this time I would want the Scotsman to be ultra-PRO Independence and PRO the EURO as Scotland's currency... Get Scottish people NOTICING THE PAPER once again...

The same for the Yorkshire Post - turn its politics on its head.

Changing politics of a paper is like a radical change of a window display in a shop - it always, without doing anything, increases sales up to about 25% more - if a sale sometimes 100% more...

Change your POLITICS and MAKE MONEY at no extra cost at all....

POLITICS is the easiest way to get new readers at zero cost.

[dazzaa] 23/1/2017 23:14

The semantics of grammar is indeed relative to the workings of the human personality.I totally agree with all that has been said about the current management, for me the lack of confidence shown by directors not buying their own shares or indeed the almost total lack of public communication aside from legal requirements that was until last week but the share price is still trapped.If AH sods off to the sunset we may need someone from the newspaper industry that is equally knowledgeable with digital strategies to put in place but it's not just him that should be in the taxi sorry bus.

[extrader] 23/1/2017 10:35

Hi netcurtains,

tbh, I agree with you.....

It's a bit like 'with all due respect'. The 'respect due' you might feel is 'well, actually, not very much'.

ATB

[netcurtains] 23/1/2017 10:23

tbh: going to be in the 20s soon, things are moving fast.

(what does tbh mean? why would people say that unless they are often not honest?? What does honest mean anyway - there are three realities, how you see jpr, how others see jpr and how jpr really is... Surely every thing that we say, is by our natures, dishonest on some level, as we even deceive ourselves).

tbh is a con.

Be honest in your dishonesty. JPR will be in the 30s soon! That is my opinion to myself - that is why I bought shed loads of the shares. That is why I am here.

cheers Net.

[netcurtains] 23/1/2017 06:59

Put prices up 20% - I'm not going to notice any difference in paying £1.20 compared to £1.00... Put it down to print costs - then do some special offers for a month or two transition.

The sunday times is £2.50, the week-end price of Scotsman, post and i should all be £2

[mattab] 23/1/2017 04:21

Balanced post Eddy. The only kind that has merit. Cannot imagine AH will be around for long - days certainly numbered, another large payment for his exit - done well out of JPR for destruction of shareholder value. No doubt will have lined up another lucrative position as they tend to do.

How will the market take the news? - if it wasn't for CA I would think JPR would be around 6/7 pence tbh.

There is value here but it may take some time to be realised judging by the Thorntons experience. Will CA want to be around that long in JPR's case - I doubt it tbh. Interesting

[stdyeddy] 23/1/2017 01:47

chicken - you left out the part about £200m in debt. What's even more worrying is lord crybaby's observation about the current torrid experience for newspapers. How's the advertising holding up in the i anyone? (I haven't counted the pages for a while). I'm getting the feeling that there's every chance we could be heading into a minor recession in the UK (inflation up, wages stagnating, investment stalled pending brexit agreement). The big recruitment firms are showing good results abroad but hiring in the UK has gone into reverse. Homes and cars are good at the moment but they typically follow recruitment.

jpr can't afford to take a further hit to its profits. The i stopped the last set of results falling into the toilet but it can't keep the group afloat on its own. Those 185 papers (or whatever number it is now, post-sales) need to generate income.

In the absence of a buyer for the whole group, maybe selling all the newspaper businesses piecemeal is the answer unfortunately. A back-of-the-fag-packet calculation from the recent sales suggests the numbers might stack up; 13 papers in East Anglia and 3 in the Isle of Man making £21.5m. If the same kind of sale figures were applicable for all of the publications the total value might be around £260m, plus whatever can be got for the property and the print centres - the last full year accounts showed these at around £50m I think. There's some cash on hand but that's almost balanced by other liabilities. So maybe the real NAV is £300m less £200m in debt leaving £100m, which is five times the current share price. (If anyone has an informed view on these numbers please comment.)

I don't think asset stripping is CA's usual method so maybe we will get to see this achieved, but generally, wouldn't you expect a hedgie to take the business private with a tiny payoff to existing shareholders and then sell off the assets to maximise the profit? I'm not sure we'll see the benefit as shareholders.

[stdyeddy] 23/1/2017 01:03

Finally AH is going to be held to account. As an administrator, he did a reasonable job a couple of years back reducing the cost base but he should have gone after the rights issue. jpr needs someone with a lot more entrepreneurial imagination and political skill to sort out its current predicament. And a brilliant finance director. Am looking forward to seeing what Rich Bernstein can achieve now that he's getting amongst them. Camilla seems to have responded (news story on Rothschild and debt restructuring) so maybe she won't be a lame duck chairman after all.

[philjeans] 22/1/2017 12:33

Multi-bagger?

Maybe but surely up to 30p next week.

[chickenrun1] 22/1/2017 12:17

It is all about to kick off and Crystal Amber have the plan and have now taken most of Orbis's stock from them. Crystal Amber will make things happen with their large share-holding now.

Multi-bagger here ?

£19m market capitalisation and £250m in sales. Think about it.

[firw00d] 22/1/2017 00:26

Sunday Times article,

The boss of Johnston Press faces a battle to keep his job after leading shareholders launched a blistering attack on his leadership of the troubled publisher.

Investors are demanding sweeping changes at the owner of The Scotsman, The Yorkshire Post and i newspaper, and have grown impatient with chief executive Ashley Highfield. Crystal Amber, the company’s biggest shareholder with a 20.4% stake, is expected to hold talks with interim chairman Camilla Rhodes this week, where it will demand an overhaul of the company’s management.

A leading shareholder who wanted to remain anonymous told The Sunday Times: “Highfield got a huge bonus following the restructure of the business two years ago. But since that restructure shareholders have lost 90% of their money.”

Another big shareholder, who also asked not to be identified, said: “A better word for Highfield’s restructure would be destruction.”

Johnston’s share price has lost almost all its value since striking a debt restructuring deal in 2014. The Edinburgh-based company is now worth less than £20m.


Highfield pocketed £1.65m in 2014 after overseeing the restructuring, with £645,000 awarded as a bonus, half of which was paid in shares. His salary fell 65% to £581,000 in 2015.

Like many other publishers, Johnston is attempting to offset the sharp decline in its print titles by embracing social media. But the company is also under intense pressure to reduce its massive £205m debt, built up during an ill-fated acquisition spree prior to the financial crisis by Highfield’s predecessors.

Highfield has attempted to tackle the arrears through disposals, including the recent £17m sale of Johnston’s East Anglian and East Midlands titles to Illife Media.

In an effort to boost tumbling print revenues, Highfield also bought the i newspaper last year for £24m.

Johnston Press and Crystal Amber declined to comment.

[netcurtains] 21/1/2017 09:05

Its Easy to think of potential new business models that work for paper:

If newsprint prices ever got to be a real problem we could go back to the olden days business model (get money back on the bottle)...

Increase the cover price of the paper quite significantly but if you take old newspapers back to a designated shop (shop pays JPR for this privilege) the recycler gets a partial refund on the paper (refund has to be less then the cost of new newsprint). This allows JPR to increase prices, look good (recycle) and steal customers from other papers that do not have this "money back" business model. As over 25% of customers probably will not bother taking papers back then bottom line profit, for those customers, will increase substantially.

But bottom line is people like buying local papers for the local adverts. It cuts right through all the dross on your searches - its all there right in front of you - always available to go back and reread without the ads getting recycled or removed from under your feet. This market will exist for at least another 10 years probably a lot longer. HMV should not exist as a business - its absurd - buying films on DVDs from a shop in 2017 - its totally absurd - but its still here...and I guess making money.



HMV is miles more absurd as a business model than local newspapers and it currently makes about £10M profits a year. Its insane... But local newspapers do work as a working business model for the forseeable future (eg at least 10 years).. Imagine in a year or two, Johnston Press makes £10M profit and has little or no debts left... What will the share price be then?