PROVIDENCE – Gannett Co., parent company of The Providence Journal, on Thursday reported a year-end loss that narrowed to $78 million in 2022, or 57 cents per diluted share.
That compares with a loss $135 million one year prior, or $1 per diluted share.
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Company revenue totaled $2.95 billion in 2022, a decline from $3.21 billion one year prior. Same store revenue decreased 7% year over year.
The McLean, Va.-based company owns and operates several papers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, including The Providence Journal, The Taunton Gazette, The Newport Daily News, The Cape Cod Times, The Herald News in Fall River, The Worcester Telegram and The Standard-Times in New Bedford. Gannett also owns publications in nearly every state in the nation, as well as operations in the United Kingdom.
“During the fourth quarter the company continued to make significant progress against its strategic priorities, and we ended 2022 with our highest quarterly Adjusted EBITDA for the year, resulting in significant sequential growth over the prior quarter,” said Michael Reed, Gannett CEO and chairman. “This illustrates the effectiveness of our ongoing cost management program [that] has enabled us to navigate the near-term volatility and we believe will allow Gannett to realize its long-term growth goals. As a result, we believe we have laid the foundation for strong full year 2023 guidance which includes significant cash flow growth.”
The company Thursday posted a fourth-quarter profit of $32.8 million after posting a $122.5 million profit one year prior. Quarterly revenue totaled $750.7 million, a decrease from $826.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Same store revenue decreased 10.3% year over year.
“Importantly, in addition to the results from our cost management efforts, we also continued to see the success of our digital-only subscription and Digital Marketing Solutions growth strategies,” Reed sad. “In the fourth quarter revenue … our digital-only paid subscriptions rose 29% year over year, as we surpassed 2 million digital-only paid subscriptions, and our Digital Marketing Solutions business achieved its third consecutive quarter of sequential core platform revenue growth, while maintaining double-digit Adjusted EBITDA margins.”
Gannett previously reported substantial losses in the prior two quarters – a $53.7 million loss in the second quarter of 2022 and a $54.1 million loss in the third quarter.
On Aug 12, Gannett laid off more than 400 employees at several locations. Then the company announced companywide cost-cutting measures on Oct. 13 that included five mandatory unpaid furlough days between Dec. 19-30, suspension of the company’s 401(k) match, voluntary severance package offers and an optional four-day workweek. It also announced a new round of staff reductions in December.
The number of job cuts was not specified. However, a Gannett executive told The Poynter Institute for Media Studies Inc. the company was targeting a 6% reduction, or about 200 of its 3,400 newsroom employees.
On Dec. 15, Lynne Sullivan was named regional executive editor of The Providence Journal and The Newport Daily News. She succeeded David Ng, who was laid off at the beginning of the month as part of Gannett’s job cuts.
On Feb. 3, Gannett announced that it used the proceeds from real estate sales totaling $21.3 million in January to reduce its first debt lien by $22.3 million.
“We also continued to make significant progress towards debt reduction, repaying $47 million of debt while ending the year with a cash balance of $94 million,” Reed said. “We believe we are well-positioned to further improve our overall capital structure in 2023 due to the expected improvement in free cash flow along with continued real estate asset sales. We are pleased to enter 2023 with solid liquidity, a healthy balance sheet and a robust real estate asset sales pipeline which we believe will allow us to continue our aggressive debt repayment strategy.”
