Gannett Co., Inc. ("Gannett", "we", "us", "our", or the "Company") (NYSE: GCI) has reported its financial results for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2024.
"We continued to make solid progress on our key priorities in the third quarter while delivering another quarter of year-over-year Adjusted EBITDA growth. Three out of four digital revenue categories experienced further trend improvement year-over-year, and as a result, total digital revenues surpassed 45% of total revenues, representing an all-time high. These results reinforce our belief that we have created a sustainable pathway for ongoing growth moving forward. We also significantly increased our free cash flow by 168% year-over-year. Additionally, within the quarter, we repaid approximately $29 million of debt, which combined with our Adjusted EBITDA growth, reduced our first lien net leverage to 1.76x. It is also important to note that some of our strategic decisions impacted total reported revenue in the third quarter, such as the intentional closure or divestiture of certain businesses in our portfolio. These actions were in-line with our long-term strategy and did not materially impact Adjusted EBITDA," said Michael Reed, Gannett chairman and chief executive officer.
"In the third quarter, our audience surpassed 200 million average monthly unique visitors for the first time in our history, reflecting growth of over 7% compared to the prior year period. Furthermore, in the third quarter, we announced an additional partnership with BetMGM, which is expected to enhance the monetization of our content platform."
"On Oct. 15, 2024, we completed our debt refinancing transactions which extended our maturities, reduced potential share dilution by approximately 46%, and simplified our capital structure. This refinancing is an important milestone in our long-term strategic plan. With our continued strong performance, we are pleased to reiterate nearly all of our 2024 full year outlook, with the exception of slight adjustments to total digital revenues and free cash flow, which was impacted by our refinancing efforts. Beyond 2024, we continue to believe we are well-positioned to drive sustainable growth across all of our key financial metrics, and as a result, we reiterated our 2025-2026 business outlook."
"We continue to execute on our strategy and have made great progress on our key priorities in the third quarter. We expect to see further improvement to trends in the fourth quarter as well. Importantly, we believe we are well-positioned to realize 2025 full year total revenue growth, as well as continued growth in Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. With the completion of our debt refinancing transactions, combined with anticipated revenue and cash flow growth in 2025 and 2026, we believe we are well-positioned to create significant value for our shareholders."
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