• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 20, 2025

Digital now makes up 45% of revenue at Gannett, totaling over $1.1 billion for the year, the company reported in its 2024 financials. Digital revenue rose by over 5% YoY. 

Still, the news publisher experienced a 7.2% decline in total revenues to $621.3 million during Q4. This total was affected by the decision to sell or shut down some non-strategic assets. Same-store revenue dropped by 5.5%.  

And for the full year, revenue fell from $2.663 billion in the prior year to $2.509 billion, below the estimate. But Gannett, which owns USA Today and many other brands, sees the results as a victory. 

"The successful execution of our strategy has driven continued improvement across our key financial metrics,” says Michael Reed, chairman and CEO of Gannett. “In 2024, we delivered full-year growth in both Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, while driving improvement to our bottom line. We also remained focused on enhancing our capital structure in 2024, which was evidenced by repaying $73.5 million of debt in addition to repayments made in connection with the completion of our comprehensive refinancing that extended our debt maturities and significantly reduced potential future dilution from our convertible notes." 

Here's another improvement: net loss was $26.4 million, down from $27.9 million in 2023. 

The print/commercial area saw a decline to $1.4 billion, versus $1.6 billion. 

And the company is looking at total asset sales of $60 million to $70 million. On Wednesday, it was announced that Gannett is selling the Austin American-Statesman to Hearst. 

Looking forward for 2025, Gannett forecast a 7%-10% increase in digital revenues on a same-store basis. And digital will make up 50% of total revenues. 

“While transformations are never a straight line, the reaffirmation of our key financial goals demonstrates the continued progress we are making on our transformation," Reed observes.