Gannett Revenues Fall 8%

Gannett announced its quarterly revenue results as a standalone company this week — although it still wasn’t independent for most of the period being reported.

The newly minted newspaper publisher, which completed its spinoff from the new broadcasting company known as TEGNA near the end of last month, announced that total revenues fell 8.7% from $796.5 million in the second quarter of 2014 to $727.1 million in the second quarter of 2015.

As in previous quarters, the decline in newspaper publishing revenues was due to drops in both advertising and circulation revenues.

Total ad revenues fell 12% from $464 million to $410.5 million over this period, while circ revenues slipped 3.5% from $275.5 million to $265.9 million. Revenues from other sources were down 11% from $57.1 million to $50.7 million.

advertisement

advertisement

The company also owns Newsquest in the UK, where total ad revenues were down 3.8% and circ fell 1.1%. Not counting the UK business, where comparisons were also affected by currency shifts, Gannett’s U.S. ad revenues were down 9.3% and circ was down 2.4%.

Within the domestic advertising figures, retail advertising at Gannett’s U.S. properties was down 10.6%, national advertising 13.9%, and classifieds 5.3%.

Gannett president and CEO Robert Dickey noted a number of new growth initiatives from Gannett, including acquisitions in the U.S. and UK and the introduction of a new mobile version of its high-visibility “Gravity” video ad unit. Gravity units, which debuted on USA Today’s website last year, are full screen video ads. Users only see the ads once in a 24-hour period and can exit them at any time.

Next story loading loading..