By: Seth Sutel, AP Business Writer (AP) Gannett Co. Inc., the largest newspaper publisher in the country, posted a 3% increase in fourth-quarter earnings Monday as stronger newspaper advertising outweighed weak results in television.
Gannett earned $358 million, or $1.31 a share, in the three months ending Dec. 28, up from $347 million, or $1.29 a share, in the same period a year ago. Per-share earnings met the estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.
Revenues rose 6% to $1.82 billion from $1.73 billion a year ago.
Gannett reported a 10% increase in newspaper advertising revenues, which included several newly acquired businesses such as SMG Publishing. Assuming the company owned the same set of newspapers in both periods, newspaper advertising revenues would have risen 6%.
Advertising revenues at Gannett's flagship publication USA Today (
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Television revenues fell 14% in the quarter, which the company attributed to lower political advertising.
Gannett's Chairman and CEO Douglas McCorkindale said the company's newspapers reported their best performance of the year in the fourth quarter despite a "backdrop of continued subdued advertising demand."
For the full year, Gannett earned $1.21 billion, up 4% from $1.16 billion in 2002. Per-share earnings rose to $4.46 from $4.31, and revenues rose 4% to $6.71 billion from $6.42 billion.
Gannett, which is based in McLean, Va., publishes 100 daily newspapers in the United States, including USA Today, as well as 500 non-daily publications and 22 television stations. Its subsidiary Newsquest is the second-largest regional newspaper publisher in the United Kingdom.
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