• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 5, 2007

Politics pays. Gannett Co.'s earnings rose 3% in the fourth quarter, the company announced Friday, driven mostly by midterm political ad spending at its broadcast operations. In the fourth quarter, the company reported a profit of $354 million, up from $343 million during the same period in 2005. The company's profit was slightly higher than Wall Street analysts had predicted.

Overall, revenue rose 7.5% to $2.21 billion--an increase of about $160 million. Within that number, broadcasting revenue rose 30.3% to $270.6 million. Broadcasting revenue was also boosted by the acquisition of two new stations last summer: KTVD-TV in Denver and WATL-TV in Atlanta. Altogether, broadcasting revenues accounted for 12% of the company's total revenues.

Gannett's newspaper revenues also grew, seeing a 5% rise--but much of this was cancelled out by rising expenses, which jumped 8%. Some of the biggest expense drivers were increases in the cost of newsprint, which jumped 6%. Gannett's flagship, USA Today, saw fourth-quarter advertising jump 13%, pulling total annual revenue up by 3.1%.

Although fourth-quarter online information wasn't available, over the first three quarters of 2006, Gannett saw the rate of online growth at its domestic community newspapers slow significantly: First-quarter revenue was up 35% over the same period in 2005, while the second quarter showed 27% growth, and the third quarter just 21%.