The £109m impairment charge represents 7% of the £1.5bn value of goodwill on the company's books and comes at Johnston Press announced an 18.1% fall in pre-tax profit to £62.5m for the six months to 30 June.

Chief executive Tim Bowdler said advertising trends had continued to deteriorate over the course of the year.

Overall ad rates declined by 9.5%, despite the impact of a 52.1% increase in digital advertising revenues. Total UK-based print advertising for the six months fell by 11.3%, and by 17.2% in June.

Bowdler said: "In response to the current challenging circumstances, we continue to actively manage our cost base to achieve productivity gains and in a manner which will protect the long term prospects of the group.

"We expect to deliver a result reflective of these initiatives and the difficult market conditions."

Over the past six months the company has completed the closure of various pre-press departments as well as announcing the proposed closure of printing operations at Northampton Web.

However, the company hailed the efficiency of its new press installations at Portsmouth and Dinnington, and the completion of the introduction of colour technology to Caledonian Offset in Edinburgh.