Johnston Press’s newspaper operations in Ireland returned to profit last year after cutting costs by €4m.

The Irish Post reports this morning that the company saw pre-tax profits of €1.7m despite sales falling 16 per cent to €19.4m.

The Post said the return to profit “was due to the removal of €4m in costs and the non-reoccurrence of exceptional costs of €5.4m in 2010 that arose from restructuring, impairment costs and an empty property provision”.

Digital revenue rose by 34 per cent year on year but still represents just 1.5pc, or €308,000, of total revenue in Ireland.

The figures also show how Johnston made €329,000 from the sale of press equipment following the closure of its Limerick print press, which was offset by €125,000 in redundancy costs.

Overall staff costs were cut from €8.9m from €11.6m. Johnston’s titles in Ireland include the Limerick Leader, the Kilkenny People, the Leinster Leader and the Longford Leader.