Discussing the company's Interim Management Statement for the 44 weeks to 5 November 2011, Highfield told PrintWeek that digital, which currently accounts for just 5% of turnover, and auxiliary areas such as exhibitions, would be grown as the company looks to recover from the dramatic hit publishers have taken in recent years.

However, he added: "We will be looking at one of our biggest revenue streams; circulation, and looking to build on the best practice on some of our titles. We see the potential there to push the sector back into growth.

"This is something I hope to make ever clearer in the future; Johnston Press will be a mixed media company, one that understands its audience very well, whatever guise that takes. Print will be part of that mix for many years to come."

Highfield said that he was cautiously optimistic, based on the company's first results since he took charge on 31 October.

Advertising revenues declined year-on-year by 8% in the 18 weeks to 5 November, compared with a 10% year-on-year decline across the first six months. Meanwhile, circulation revenues declined by 1.6% for the period; in the first half of the year they dropped 1.8%. Johnston Press's largest source of income, display advertising, fell 3.4% year-on-year, which the company said was in line with the first half of the year. The company's cost-saving plan continued, with net debt now standing at ￡357m, down from ￡386.7m at the beginning of the year.

Highfield said: "In a challenging environment I am encouraged by the resilience shown by Johnston Press in a number of revenue streams.

"There are signs in many of those streams that the rate of decline arresting or signs of growth. We seem to have quarterised the areas of long-term decline, such as job advertising, which now makes up just 6% of the business. There is now a much greater degree of predictability and we are much better positioned to build going forward."