RNS Number:9622H
Johnston Press PLC
25 February 2003



Johnston Press plc ("the Company")

NOTIFICATION OF SHAREHOLDING

The Company received notification today that

a) FMR Corp., the parent holding company of Fidelity Management & Research
Company ("FMRCO"), investment manager for US mutual funds, and Fidelity
Management Trust Company ("FMTC"), a US state chartered bank which acts as a
trustee or investment manager of various pension and trust accounts.

b) Fidelity International Limited ("FIL"), the parent holding company for
various direct and indirect subsidiaries, including Fidelity Investment Services
Ltd ("FISL"), and Fidelity Pension Management ("FPM"), investment managers for
various non-US investment companies and institutional clients, have a notifiable 
interest in the Ordinary Shares of the Company.

The notifiable interests also comprise the notifiable interest of Mr Edward C.
Johnson 3rd, a principal shareholder of FMR Corp. and Fidelity International
Limited.

The notifiable interests include interest held on behalf of authorised unit
trust schemes in the U.K., notwithstanding the exemption from reporting pursuant
to Section 209(1)(h) of the Companies Act 1985.

These notifications of disclosable interests constitute separate notifications
of interest in the shares and are combined solely for the purposes of clarity.
Nothing herein should be taken to indicate that FMR Corp. and its direct and
indirect subsidiaries, Fidelity International Limited and its direct and
indirect subsidiaries, or Mr Edward C. Johnson 3rd act as a group or in concert
in respect of the disclosed interests, or that they are required to submit these
notifications on a joint basis.

The disclosable interests arise under section 208(4)(b) of the Act, namely where
a person, not being the registered holder, is entitled to exercise a right
conferred by the holding of the shares or to control the exercise of such
rights, or under section 203 of the Act respectively.



The registered holders are as follows:-
Registered Holder                           Management Company    Shares held
HSBC                                        FMRCO                 4,500,030
Chase Nominees Ltd                          FMRCO                 1,325,800
State Street Nominees Ltd                   FMRCO                 149,970
State Street Nominees Ltd                   FMTC                  28,000
Brown Brothers Harriman                     FMTC                  13,980
MSCO                                        FMTC                  60,000
State Street Bank & Trust                   FMTC                  14,600
Chase Nominees Ltd                          FISL                  3,216,570
Chase Manhattan Bank London                 FISL                  42,053
RBS Trust Bank                              FPM                   390,222
Nortrust Nominees Ltd                       FPM                   112,862
BT Globenet Nominees Ltd                    FPM                   29,680
Citibank                                    FPM                   58,514
Bank of New York London                     FPM                   75,722
Bankers Trust                               FPM                   772,300
HSBC Client Hlds Nom (UK)                   FPM                   454,900
Bankers Trust                               FIL                   57,700
Citibank                                    FIL                   42,586
RBS Trust Bank                              FIL                   549,238
Chase Nominees Ltd                          FIL                   198,578
Bank of New York Europe                     FIL                   226,861
HSBC                                        FIL                   2,688
Northern Trust                              FIL                   332,840
Bank of New York London                     FIL                   483,700

                                            Total                 13,139,394

This represents 4.64% of the total amount of shares in issue.


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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