From a Bloomberg News story moved moments ago:
Gannett, the owner of 82 newspapers as well as television stations, reported fourth-quarter earnings that increased 30% on cost cutting and rising TV advertising revenue.
Net income advanced to $174.1 million, or 72 cents a share, from $133.6 million, or 56 cents, a year earlier, the McLean, Virginia-based company said today in a statement. Earnings, excluding some items, rose to 83 cents a share. Analysts projected 81 cents on average, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Revenue was little changed at $1.46 billion, compared with the average analyst estimate of $1.47 billion. Revenue for the year slid 1.3% to $5.44 billion, the fourth straight annual decline.
In early reaction, investors tamped down the company's shares: GCI recently traded for $14.65, down 54 cents, or 3.5%.
Gannett, the first large newspaper publisher to report its results for the quarter, is watched by investors as an indicator of how the industry at large is faring. The company’s publishing revenue, including advertising and circulation, declined 4.7% in the fourth quarter to $1.1 billion, while digital revenue increased 5.2% to $165.8 million.
Broadcasting revenue rose 27% to $232.8 million.
Gannett, whose newspapers include USA Today, gained 16 cents to $15.19 on Jan. 28 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares were little changed this year before today.
Gannett, the owner of 82 newspapers as well as television stations, reported fourth-quarter earnings that increased 30% on cost cutting and rising TV advertising revenue.
Net income advanced to $174.1 million, or 72 cents a share, from $133.6 million, or 56 cents, a year earlier, the McLean, Virginia-based company said today in a statement. Earnings, excluding some items, rose to 83 cents a share. Analysts projected 81 cents on average, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Revenue was little changed at $1.46 billion, compared with the average analyst estimate of $1.47 billion. Revenue for the year slid 1.3% to $5.44 billion, the fourth straight annual decline.
In early reaction, investors tamped down the company's shares: GCI recently traded for $14.65, down 54 cents, or 3.5%.
Gannett, the first large newspaper publisher to report its results for the quarter, is watched by investors as an indicator of how the industry at large is faring. The company’s publishing revenue, including advertising and circulation, declined 4.7% in the fourth quarter to $1.1 billion, while digital revenue increased 5.2% to $165.8 million.
Broadcasting revenue rose 27% to $232.8 million.
Gannett, whose newspapers include USA Today, gained 16 cents to $15.19 on Jan. 28 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares were little changed this year before today.
Gannett's four consecutive years of declining revenues. That says a heck of lot more than Craig Dubow.
ReplyDeleteHow long can Dubow continue to spout his gobblygook non-speak about how well Gannett is positioning itself on a multi-platformed launch pad to skyrocket into the digital age?
I suppose this charade can continue as long as Gannett has employees to cut from the payroll.
So the Crystal Palace slashes and burns, mostly on the backs of us workers, gets profits up 30%, meets Wall Street analyst projections and ... the stock plummets.
ReplyDeleteAin't corporate journalism great?
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ReplyDeleteSo nice to see Pointroll carrying the water for the rest of Gannett. Funny how the release made no mention of Pointroll. Maybe Gracia told Robin Pence to leave it out as they do not want to answer uncomfortable questions about Pointroll since the entire leadership team will be departing in this quarter!!!
ReplyDeleteStock market analysts aren't impressed by the buoyant rhetoric from McLean, but look at the figures -- particularly the decline in publishing revenue. This is a publishing company, so the continuing decline in ad and circulation revenues are telling. The digital increase looks good, but it is more than offset by the losses in print. I think this is clearly the consequences of the cutbacks which are incredibly reckless.
ReplyDeleteHaha everyone who is writing post saying wall street is sick of the execs talking is silly. If any of you know anything about stock and trading you would know that the only reason the stock is going down is because it missed revenue by less than 1%. The company had a blow out quarter and beat estimates by 3 cents a share. The company is moving away from print and creating more digital. Hence the 1 billion dollars in revenue from digital. I trade this stock and do not work for the company. Nor do I care about the cuts because I'm glad thy are looking out for the shareholders not the employees. That's what they are hired to do.
ReplyDeleteMissing the revenue projections means the company isn't growing as expected. That's because of the cuts. It is more than a technical issue because Wall Street doesn't like any negative numbers, and they found those in the revenue picture. Unfortunately, q4 was traditionally a great quarter for advertising, giving Xmas and the elections. There will be no similar pluses in this q1.
ReplyDelete11:55 Where do you get $1 billion in digital revenue? From Corporate's statement:
ReplyDeleteFor the quarter, digital reported $166 million in revenue, up 5.2 from a year before. For the year, it was $618 million, up 5.5% from the year before.
The 19.4-percent drop in real estate advertising, quarter over quarter, seems significant. At my non-Gannett paper, for instance, ads for new homes have perked up. Can anybody in real estate sales at a CGI paper explain this number?
ReplyDeleteWhat percentage of 2010 digital revenue came from Pointroll?
ReplyDeleteI don't think subsidiary revenue data is broken out.
ReplyDeleteBut Pointroll has historically been the largest chunk of digital revenue since its acquisition, and now is in the process of imploding. No wonder it wasn't mentioned in the call.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you saying Pointroll is imploding? I know execs are leaving, but turnover was to be expected after the acquisition.
ReplyDelete2:03 - Is this your first visit to this blog? The mass exodus at PR (not just execs but foot soldiers) is due to NO ONE wanting to report into Williams, Maness, Donaghy, et al without Saridakis' cover. If they did, PR would have been highlighted as the shining beacon of Gannett Digital today.
ReplyDelete“Newsprint expense was up 18.3 percent due to significantly higher newsprint usage prices offset partially by 6.5 percent decline in consumption.”
ReplyDeleteAnd Gannett expects newsprint usage costs will be unfavorable in the first quarter of 2011? So, the question is how much as publishing operating costs were 7.3 percent lower excluding newsprint last quarter. With it shaved the decline to 5.3 percent.
12:42 -- I'm not sure where your paper is located, but one reason Gannett is likely suffering on the real estate front is that it holds a number of papers in California, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Florida. Real estate has taken a beating in those markets (housing prices down as much as 50% in some cases). Even incremental gains in other markets would likely be offset by the lack of advertising in papers operating in those five states.
ReplyDelete3:17 - yes I'm new to this blog. It's clear that gannett is struggling with their digital strategy. But how does this effect Pointroll employees in a daily basis?
ReplyDeleteRealtors are much more likely to rely on their own Web sites, which offer virtual tours, info about neighborhoods, schools, etc., than to go for the bland and now rarely read newspaper ad.
ReplyDeleteMajor real estate companies across the country are eliminating their newspaper advertising, ditto car dealerships which also have Websites that not only show photos of cars, but also offer their carfaxes on line.
I happen to have a home for sale in the Journal News' circulation area, and the agent flatly refuses to advertise in the paper. A waste of time and money, she says.
"No offense," she said, "but there's no response from ads in that paper these days."