Johnston Press in the red after £200m write-down The publisher took a £194.5m write-down on its portfolio of around 300 regional newspapers and magazines, as well as £57.9m over its printing. This pulled it down from a £13.6m profit in the first half of last year to a £248.7m loss. The company is attempting to adjust to consumers increasingly accessing news via the internet and is investing heavily in its online business under chief executive Ashley Highfield, the former Microsoft executive who also launched the BBC's iPlayer. Despite the loss, Mr Highfield said it was "encouraging to see the benefits of our actions starting to come through," pointing to a first increase in like-for-like operating profit in seven years, a 13.3pc increase in digital revenues and a slowdown in advertising declines. Like-for-like operating profit - which ignores items such as the write-downs and closed titles - was up 4.3pc at £28.6m. Advertising revenue fell 13.6pc, although this decline showed signs of tailing off: the fall was 6.3pc in June and July against 17.6pc at the start of the year. Growth in digital revenues also picked up steam, growing 31.9pc on an annual basis in June and July. "Although the economic outlook is not without challenges, momentum has continued into the second half, underpinned by the re-structuring and re-focusing of the business, an increasingly stable advertising market and growth in circulation and digital revenues," Mr Highfield said. We remain focused on adapting our business to the changing environment in which we operate and reaching the point where digital growth will offset any further decline so that we can return to overall top line growth. Shares fell 1.6pc to 15.8p.