In its interim management statement for the 44 weeks to 31 October 2009, the company claimed that decline in advertising has slowed from a 32.7% year-on-year drop in the first half of the year, to 19.1% in the past 10 weeks.

This echoed INM's claims last month that the advertising market for newspapers was stabilising.

Johnston Press's statement said: "In addition to the significant cost reductions made by the group in the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009, we expect further progress to be made with a year-on-year reduction for the full year to be around £50m."

Following on from the closure of its plants in Kilkenny and Caledonia, the group said "redundancy costs from those previously anticipated are such that the cash exceptional costs for the year will be close to £12m". 

The closures "will also result in a write-off totalling £20m being the book value of the presses on these sites", it added.

Looking to the future, the company said that, while it continued to be cash generative, there was now a limited scope for debt reduction in the second half of the year.

"Given the greater stability in advertising revenues, combined with reducing declines in circulation revenues and continued progress with cost savings, the group is confident of delivering an operating profit in line with current market expectations for 2009."

In August this year, Johnston Press ended months of speculation about its future when it refinanced its debt.