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 2004 and the outlook for the remainder of the first quarter at a presentation to the Media and Entertainment Analysts of New York.
McCorkindale said the company should be able to achieve the First Call consensus earnings estimates of 99 cents per diluted share for the first quarter. “Fundamentally, we are positioned the way we should be in anticipation of continued improvement in the economy and for the Olympic Games, the elections and other events which will mark 2004. At the same time, we remain cautiously optimistic – the economy is showing some signs of recovery albeit very slowly and unevenly,” McCorkindale said.
Gary Watson, president of the Newspaper Division, said: “Our economic and geographic diversity is a major asset. Employment revenues year-to-date across all product lines are up and we expect that trend to continue as we cycle the Iraq invasion a year ago.” Revenues from non-daily publications are up about 30 percent year-to-date in 2004 and on-line employment revenues are growing in the upper double-digit range.
Craig Dubow, president and CEO of Gannett Broadcasting, said: “Gannett is well positioned in its markets to maximize opportunities associated with 2004’s major events. Gannett television stations are ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in all of its 13 metered markets for late news and No. 1 or No. 2 in 9 of its 13 metered markets for morning news.” He said that the year got off to a good start fueled in part by political spending and the Super Bowl on Gannett’s six CBS stations.
Craig Moon, president and publisher of USA TODAY, said that ad revenues are up sequentially through February. “Looking ahead, March and April will be strong based on favorable comparisons from a year ago,” he said. Circulation will continue to be helped by strong reporting and upgraded editorial content, which continues to make USA TODAY an even more vital news source for our readers.
The Webcast of the presentation will be available under “Investor Relations” at www.gannett.com through March 24, 2004.
Also, the company said it began distributing the Annual Report for 2003 and the 2004 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 500 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 22 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