Our Business
Johnston Press serves the local media needs of numerous communities in the UK and Ireland. We aim to be, and in the vast majority of cases are, the principal source of local news, information, entertainment and comment in those communities.
We currently provide our services through 18 daily newspapers, 253 weekly newspapers and a huge range of related specialist, locally focussed, print publications. We operate 297 local websites to extend the content and reach of our print products. Together these reach a combined audience of about 18.3 million readers each month, often providing unique local content.
The development and maintenance of our audience is extremely important. In 2009 we undertook a series of actions to focus on our printed products and their circulation, including improving the availability at those outlets selling the majority of copies, and improving the quality of our products. A key feature of this is our editorial review process which aims to improve our print products by ensuring that our newspapers focus on the need of their local communities through a combination of customer research and peer review. This has ensured that our products remain sharp and continue to serve their communities.
In 2009 we made the decision to cease development of our own internet solutions and replace some offerings by purchasing software or licensing complete solutions. We concluded a deal with DMGT to utilise their Jobsite software. This has enables us to move rapidly, upgrade our technology and provide customers with a better solution. New offerings for property, motors and business listings and are also being developed.
A new editorial Content Management System has replaced in-house developed software. This is now being installed across the group and is also being utilised in our upgraded websites which are being rolled out across the group. The system has improved the way text, pictures, audio and video content are captured and utilised in print, online and for mobiles devices. As part of this project, external experts undertook a thorough evaluation of our online readers' needs in order to redesign our websites.
We operate central units for transport and logistics, newspaper sales and advertisement creation. In addition, regional teams have been established for telephone sales and editorial production, enabling common business processes to be employed and best practice adopted.
In 2009, a new business unit was created to oversee all aspects of the Group's transport operation and delivery of newspapers from press hall to point of sale. This has already led to efficiencies through improved purchasing and planning of distribution.
The central newspaper sales team provides research, marketing and administration support in addition to sharing and monitoring best practice.
Our relationships with advertisers remain key and extensive work on our advertising platforms was also carried out during 2009. Improvements for customers include an online service for births, marriages and deaths (i-Announce); upgraded technology for video advertising; and packages for both local and national display advertisers that better meet their needs and extend their reach.
We have consolidated advertisement creation (the design teams within pre-press departments which prepare customer advertisements) and our long-term objective is to have three units operating in Leeds, Preston and Carn in Northern Ireland.
Telephone sales teams, which were historically based in individual operating companies, have been consolidated into twenty regional hubs. The technology employed has made it possible to improve call handling, invest in specialist management and monitor customer service levels.
Editorial page design is now being shared across companies and other benefits include a more robust infrastructure for the preparation of news pages, scale efficiencies and lower capital costs.
Stabilising and developing sales of our daily and weekly newspapers continues to be a strategic objective. This has been greatly enhanced by additional focus on consumer research with the Group now having over 6,000 active online reader panellists. These consumer panellists provide feedback on newspaper content and offer a valuable insight into views of our readers. We have also invested in specific research projects to support our daily newspapers in Edinburgh and Leeds and instigated new procedures to evaluate the quality of our newspapers including an initiative to canvass the opinion of peer groups, consumers and staff.
The ABC figures for July to December 2009 show that we had the best performing titles, in terms of circulation, compared with our main competitors.
Our digital audiences continue to be independently audited by the industry body ABCe. Results for 2009 indicated that our online audience had increased throughout the year and that our online audience is the largest of all regional media companies.
The Group entered into a new phase of business development in 2009 by forming separate working parties to review the display, recruitment, property and motors advertising markets. Each team was led by a senior manager and comprised a cross-section of commercial directors. We are implementing the recommendations, which include changes to pricing strategy, sales organisation structure, new advertising platforms and improvements to online self-serve advertising. This work has enabled the Group to have a deeper understanding of custormers' views, whilst at the same time identifying new opportunities to grow revenue.
We have recently taken the decision to expand our events and exhibitions businesses. The skills of Outbound, our emigration events and publishing business are being leveraged to produce one large scale event in each division during 2010. We will review the success of these initiatives before deciding on further plans for expansion in 2011 and beyond.
Our two main print sites, Dinnington and Portsmouth provide the flexibility to undertake a great range of print requirements including smaller titles with shorter print run papers. This has allowed print operations across our group to function more efficiently.