Gannett Executives Present to the Media and Entertainment Analysts of New York
NEW YORK, NY – Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) Chairman, President and CEO Douglas H. McCorkindale and other Gannett executives today reported on the company’s performance to date in 2005 and the outlook for the remainder of the first quarter at a presentation to the Media and Entertainment Analysts of New York.
“We expect 2005 to be similar in many respects to 2004. Although we think it will be a better year, we expect the economy and ad demand to be uneven,” McCorkindale said. “We are optimistic that, despite some difficult comparisons, we can achieve top line results that will be more than competitive with the industry.” McCorkindale said the company is comfortable with EPS first quarter estimates in the range of $1.04 to $1.06 at this time.
Gary Watson, president of the Newspaper Division, said: “Our domestic newspapers and ancillary publications are off to an encouraging start in 2005 with nearly all revenue categories showing increases.” Through the first two months of 2005, total web-based revenues have increased 61 percent over 2004. Retail revenues from non-daily publications are up about 24 percent year-to-date in 2005, he said.
Craig Dubow, president and CEO of Gannett Broadcasting, said: “With the loss of record political revenue, in particular, we will have some tough year-over-year comparisons. Our stations will take full advantage of every opportunity while creating new opportunities.” For 2005, Gannett Broadcasting is projecting business development revenue to show double digit growth, he said.
Craig Moon, president and publisher of USA TODAY, said ad revenues began trending up in mid January and were up significantly in February. The marketplace accepted an 8 percent increase in ad rates because USA TODAY continues to be the best value in the print world, he said. “In addition, USATODAY.com, which will be ten years old in April, has been instrumental in growing our national footprint. In 2005, we are committed to moving our best content across all platforms including mobile,” Moon said.
The Webcast of the presentation will be available under “Investor Relations” at www.gannett.com through March 29, 2005. The presentation will be archived in the “Investor Relations” of the company’s Web site.
Also, the company said it began distributing the 2004 Annual Report and proxy statement to shareholders. Both the annual report and the proxy statement are available on its Web site, www.gannett.com.
To access the documents, look under “Investor Relations” and click on annual reports or proxy statement.
Gannett Co., Inc. is a leading international news and information company that publishes 101 daily newspapers in the USA, including USA TODAY, the nation’s largest-selling daily newspaper. The company also owns more than 750 non-daily publications in the USA and USA WEEKEND, a weekly newspaper magazine. Gannett subsidiary Newsquest is the United Kingdom’s second largest regional newspaper company. Newsquest publishes more than 300 titles, including 17 daily newspapers, and a network of prize-winning Web sites. Gannett also operates 21 television stations in the United States and is an Internet leader with sites sponsored by its TV stations and newspapers including USATODAY.com, one of the most popular news sites on the Web.
Certain statements in this press release may be forward looking in nature or “forward looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward looking statements contained in this press release are subject to a number of risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual performance to differ materially from these forward looking statements. A number of those risks, trends and uncertainties are discussed in the company’s SEC reports, including the company’s annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Any forward looking statements in this press release should be evaluated in light of these important risk factors.
For investor inquiries, contact:
Jeff Heinz
Director, Investor Relations
(703) 854-6917
jheinz@gannett.com
For media inquiries, contact:
Tara Connell
Vice President of Corporate Communications
(703) 854-6049
tjconnel@gannett.com