BUZZ-Johnston Press: hits 3-yr low after profit warning
** Johnston Press, publisher of "The Scotsman" and "The Yorkshire Post", falls to in lowest in almost 3 yrs after co warns on lower FY profit
** Co says Q2 hurt by a number of national and local advertisers choosing to reduce or delay their spend in both print and online during general election
** Stock falls 13.2 pct, making it one of the biggest percentage losers on the London Stock Exchange
** Johnston Press worst performer on the FTSE All Share Media Index and the FTSE All Share Index
** Britain's newspaper industry has been hammered in recent years by the move online of both readers and advertisers
** Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI.L - news) said last month that it would double its cost-cutting target for the year to protect profit as weak print advertising chips away at revenue
** "With leverage (3.1x EBITDA) now likely to take longer to move down, we no longer forecast any dividend payments within the forecast period," Panmure Gordon analyst Jonathan Helliwell wrote in a note
** As part of a refinancing plan to return to revenue growth, Johnston Press, which has not declared a dividend to since 2007, cannot pay back shareholders until the ratio of net debt to EBITDA falls below 2.5 times (Reuters Messaging: noor.hussain.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)