Johnston Press

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Johnston Press plc
Type Public limited company
Traded as LSE: JPR
Industry Newspapers
Founded 1767
Headquarters Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Key people Ian Russell (Chairman)
Ashley Highfield (CEO)
Revenue Decrease £398.1 million (2010)
Operating income £54.9 million (2010)
Net income £36.1 million (2010)
Website www.johnstonpress.co.uk

Johnston Press plc is a Scottish newspaper publishing company, headquartered in Edinburgh. Its flagship titles are The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post; it also operates many other newspapers around the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Isle of Man. It is the second-largest publisher of local newspapers in the UK. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index.

Contents

History[edit]

The Johnston family has been involved in the printing business since 1767. It bought control of its first newspaper, the Falkirk Herald, in 1846. The company would remain headquartered in Falkirk for the next 150 years. The family publishing company was renamed F Johnston & Co Ltd in 1882, a title it would retain until it was floated on the London Stock Exchange as Johnston Press in 1988.[1] The company's first major acquisition came in 1970, when it took control of the Fife-based publishers Strachan & Livingston.[1] In 1978 it bought Wilfred Edmunds in Chesterfield, publisher of the Derbyshire Times and The Yorkshire Weekly Newspaper Group in Wakefield.[1]

The Company bought The West Sussex County Times in 1988, The Halifax Evening Courier in 1994 and the newspaper interests of EMAP plc in 1996.[1] Further expansion followed with Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspapers in 1999 and Regional Independent Media Holdings in 2002.[1]

The Company expanded into the Irish market in 2005 by purchasing Local Press Ltd, a company owned by 3i (£65 million),[2] the newspaper assets of Scottish Radio Holdings, known as Score Press with forty-five titles in Scotland and Ireland (£155 million),[3] and the Leinster Leader Group (€138.6 million).[4] The titles were then reorganised into three main holding companies: Derry Journal Newspapers (Counties Donegal and Londonderry), Johnston Publishing (NI) (everywhere else in Northern Ireland) and Johnston Press Ireland (along with four smaller companies everywhere else in the Republic).

The Company acquired Scotsman Publications in 2006.[5]

2011 industrial action[edit]

On 7 July 2011, NUJ-represented staff at three Johnston Press titles voted 100% in favour of taking strike action.[6] The affected titles were the Doncaster Free Press, the South Yorkshire Times, the Goole Courier and the Selby Times. The dispute stemmed from Johnston Press' announcement in June 2011 of plans to cut 18 jobs including two editors.[7]

Following the ballot results, and the failure to reach settlement with Johnston Press; staff walked out on indefinite strike on 15 July 2011.[8]

Despite the strike continuing for several weeks, Johnston Press' Chief Executive John Fry[disambiguation needed] refused the NUJ's request for mediation through ACAS.[9]

Johnston Press went on to service notice of redundancy upon the South Yorkshire Times' editor Jim Oldfield on Monday 8 August 2011. This was despite circulation figures being substantially higher under Oldfield's tenure. Greame Huston, of the Doncaster Free Press is to take over management of the paper, becoming its Editor-in-chief.[10] This is despite Doncaster Free Press' circulation figures dropping under Huston's leaderships whilst the South Yorkshire Times had flourished and staved off serious circulation decreases under Jim Oldfield. As of 23 August 2011, the strike was in its sixth week.

Operations[edit]

British newspapers[edit]

The following is a partial list of British newspapers owned by the company:

Irish newspapers[edit]

In total, 22 titles are published in Northern Ireland, fourteen in the Republic and one in both:

Johnston Publishing (NI)[edit]

Daily[edit]
Local (NI)[edit]
Free titles (NI)[edit]
  • Banbridge & District Weekender
  • Belfast News
  • Craigavon Echo
  • East Antrim Advertiser
  • Lisburn Echo
  • Mid Ulster Echo
  • North West Echo

Derry Journal newspapers[edit]

Local (Derry Journal)[edit]
Free titles (Derry Journal)[edit]

Johnston Press Ireland[edit]

Kilkenny People Ltd[edit]

Limerick Leader Ltd[edit]

Nationalist Newspaper Co[edit]

Tallaght Publishing Ltd[edit]

Johnston Press announced on 9 November 2010 that the company proposed to cease printing activities in Limerick at Leader Print Limited with effect from mid-December 2010 with the loss of 29 jobs. The company gave no indication where the Limerick Leader (Monday and Wednesday), the Limerick Chronicle (Tuesday) and two broadsheet papers on Wednesdays (County Limerick) and Thursdays (Limerick city) would be printed in future. Johnston Press withdrew the sale of its Irish regional newspapers in 2009 after failing to receive a sufficiently high bid.

On 5 January 2010, The Tallaght Echo was returned to the ownership of David Kennedy, one of the founders of The Echo back in 1980. After 25 years building the newspaper he sold it to the Leinster Leader who subsequently sold it to Johnston Press. For the previous 18 months, Kennedy had been in negotiations with Johnston Press to buy back the family business and finally secured the deal to take back control in January 2010, the year that saw the 30th anniversary of the paper.

Online[edit]

The company owns the following websites, in addition to newspaper sites as above, and regionalised versions of these:

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e "History of Johnston Press". Johnston Press plc. Retrieved 10 August 2007. 
  2. ^ Newspaper Society Database of Mergers (login required)
  3. ^ Press Release on Purchase of Score Press[dead link]
  4. ^ Press Release on Purchase of Leinster Leader Group[dead link]
  5. ^ Johnston Press buys Scotsman, The Guardian, 9 December 2005
  6. ^ "Massive vote for action at South Yorkshire Newspapers". NUJ. 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2012-04-09. 
  7. ^ "Major job cuts announced at Johnston Press titles - Journalism News from". HoldtheFrontPage. Retrieved 2012-04-09. 
  8. ^ "BBC News - Journalists on indefinite strike over newspaper job cuts". Bbc.co.uk. 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2012-04-09. 
  9. ^ "Johnston Press chief says no to ACAS mediating strike | Media news". Journalism.co.uk. 2011-08-04. Retrieved 2012-04-09. 
  10. ^ "Outspoken editor receives notice of redundancy - Journalism News from". HoldtheFrontPage. Retrieved 2012-04-09. 
  11. ^ Our Business: Johnston (Falkirk) Ltd, Johnston Press plc
  12. ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/1227/1224328191589.html
  13. ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/1227/1224328191589.html

External links[edit]

Irish newspapers owned by Johnston Press
Daily
Local/Regional
Freesheets
  • Banbridge & District Weekender
  • Belfast News
  • City News
  • Craigavon Echo
  • East Antrim Advertiser
  • Foyle News
  • Letterkenny People
  • Lisburn Echo
  • Mid Ulster Echo
  • North West Echo
Holding Companies
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