Ad revenues for 2005, including those from acquisitions such as Score Press, were £387.7m, down from £391.5m in 2004.
Tim Bowdler, chief executive of UK's second-largest regional publisher, said: "The trading environment in 2005 proved to be more difficult for the regional press than at any time since the early 1990s."
Classified jobs advertising was a black spot, down 17%, but the company insisted that this was due more to the faltering economy than the impact of the internet. Display advertising was down just 2.4%.
Roger Parry, Johnston Press chairman, warned that this far into 2006 the advertising market remained challenging with no early signs of recovery.
However, the group was able to achieve a record operating margin of 34.7% and grow other revenue streams such as newspaper sales, meaning its profits were narrowly up on 2004.
While the print circulations of its weekly and daily titles fell 2.3% and 5.5% respectively, its internet audience drove page impressions up 49% to exceed 30m a month.
Online revenues increased by 32% to £8.3m, producing a contribution to profit of £5.8m. All the communities the company serves now have local websites available to them.
The company promised its performance would improve as it integrates the seven acquisitions it made during 2005 for £469m. These include The Scotsman Publications, which owns The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday, and Score Press, which owns weekly newspapers in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
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