• by Sara Guaglione , November 4, 2020

Gannett now has more than 1 million digital subscriptions, according to its third-quarter earnings report.

The company, which owns USA Today, as well as over 260 daily publications and hundreds of weeklies, had a 31.1% increase in subscriptions from a year earlier, totaling 1.03 million digital subscribers.

That’s up from Q2, when Gannett said its paid digital subscriptions increased 31% year-over-year to 927,000.

However, Gannett reported a net loss of $31.3 million in Q3, compared with a $18.5 million loss in the same quarter last year.

Gannett also experienced a 19.5% year-over-year decline in revenue, to $814.5 million. (In comparison, revenue fell 28% from a year earlier to $767 million in Q2.)

“Our third-quarter results showed a significant and rapid rebound from the second-quarter impact of the COVID pandemic and economic shutdown,” stated CEO and chairman Michael Reed.

“As we continue to focus on transitioning to a subscription-led business model, we expect to leverage this important milestone to accelerate growth in 2021 and beyond,” Reed added.

The company's third-quarter operating costs fell by 19.3%. Gannett enacted furloughs, job cuts and temporary pay cuts for executives and senior managers as a result of the pandemic.

Gannett’s print advertising revenue fell 30.9% to $208 million in Q3 2020, compared with the same quarter in 2019. 

Digital advertising and marketing services revenue declined 13.5%, to $121.3 million. 

Circulation revenue also fell 13.2%, to $336.2 million.