• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 2, 2023

Gannett is pursuing a strategy of monetizing its entire audience as it moves toward the end of the year.  

The company hopes to expand beyond essential news to lifestyle and sports topics that provide "joy," says Kristin Roberts, chief content officer at Gannett. It will focus on driving increased age views and readership.

This occurs as the digital-only revenue per user grew by 14% during the quarter YoY and hit a dollar total of $40 million, a 15.9% hike YoY. 

On the print side, the firm is trying for greater efficiency. For instance, it moved delivery of 11 titles to the U.S. Postal Service, and expects that to total 30 by the end of the year.  

Q3 revenues totaled $652.9 million, a 9.1% decrease YoY. However digital rose by 2.7% to $263.6 million, 40.4% of total revenues.

The company’s net loss fell to $2.6 million, versus $54.1 million in Q3 of 2022. 

The revised full-year guidance projects roughly $2.6 billion, down from $2.95 billion in 2022. In addition, the new outlook reflects a net loss of $20 million or lower.  

 "We remain focused on improving profitability, improving revenue trends through digital revenue growth, and debt repayment,” say CEO Mike Reed. 

He adds that the company paid down $65 million of debt in the third quarter. 

The company’s  marketing services side saw signs of consumers feeling the squeeze, primarily in the home services area. Reed sees this as a “short-term weakness.” 

On the affiliate and partner side, Gannett’s “recent agreements with Jackpocket and Red Ventures bring the total number of executed partnerships to four, which we believe will allow us to expand our audience and create additional monetization opportunities," Reed continues.