Newspaper publisher Johnston Press (JPR) reveals its newly acquired i newspaper achieved a record readership in the aftermath of the EU referendum sending its shares 6.3% higher to 14.9p.
The company agreed a £24 million deal for the title in February 2016 (12 Feb). Daily circulation has been consistently over 300,000 in the past week with advertising revenues at their highest level since the acquisition completed in April.
The i also has a growing online following with a record amount of traffic to the inews.co.uk website which broke through the 1 million page views per week barrier for the first time since its April launch with 1.65 million page views.
The company notes the referendum ‘has evidently been beneficial for newspaper groups in general’.
House broker Liberum reiterates its ‘buy’ recommendation and 180p price target. It comments: ‘Johnston Press' confirms the boost it has seen to its circulation numbers by Brexit.
‘We have alluded previously to this trend arguing for the positive short-to-medium-term impact to newspapers on the back of Brexit due to a circulation boost. According to Newsworks, UK's trade body for UK newspapers, the average circulation uplift was +724k across the three days following Brexit.’
