Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) (“Gannett” or “company” or “we” or “our”) today reported first quarter 2018 financial results for the period ended March 31, 2018. Our first quarter 2018 comprised 90 days, one less day (Sunday) than our first quarter 2017.
“We are pleased with the momentum we saw this quarter in digital advertising revenues, which reached 43.6% of total advertising revenues in the quarter,” said Robert J. Dickey, president and chief executive officer. “Overall, first quarter results were ahead of our expectations driven by solid growth in digital advertising revenues, especially within the digital marketing services category.”
“We also experienced lower than expected costs in the quarter primarily driven by favorable savings in compensation and benefits,” said Ali Engel, senior vice president and chief financial officer. “This quarter’s strong results are a testament to our continued focus on efficiencies to drive steady cash flow, while also investing for our future. Finally, we were pleased to complete a $200 million convertible debt financing in early April that provides us continued flexibility to execute on our strategic transformation.”
First Quarter 2018 Consolidated Results
• Operating revenues were $723.0 million, compared to $773.5 million in the first quarter of 2017.
• Favorable changes in foreign currency exchange rates benefited revenues by $7.5 million.
• Same store, day adjusted (1) operating revenues declined 7.2%, an improvement compared to the 8.8% decline in the fourth quarter of 2017. The improvement was due to stronger digital advertising revenue and our strategic subscriber pricing initiatives.
• Total digital revenues increased 9% to $255.5 million, or approximately 35% of total revenue.
• GAAP net losses were $0.4 million, including $14.4 million of after-tax restructuring, asset impairment charges and other costs.
• Adjusted EBITDA (2) totaled $55.1 million compared to $69.7 million in the first quarter of 2017.
First Quarter 2018 Publishing Segment
• Publishing segment operating revenues were $638.7 million compared to $694.9 million in the first quarter of 2017. On a same store, day adjusted basis, segment revenues declined 8.6%.
• Same store, day adjusted print advertising revenues declined 17.2% year-over-year, an improvement from the 18.5% decline in the fourth quarter of 2017. The improvement reflects the benefit from an earlier Easter and a revenue lift associated with the redesign of our obituary sections.
• Digital advertising revenues increased 7.3% to $101.5 million compared to the prior year quarter. On a same store, day adjusted basis, digital advertising revenues increased 5.5%, a strong improvement from the 0.7% gain in the fourth quarter. ◦ Digital marketing services advertising revenues of $17.1 million rose 44.3%, on a same store, day adjusted basis, driven by higher client counts and higher average revenue per client.
– Digital media advertising revenues of $64.4 million rose 6.2%, on a same store, day adjusted basis, due to strong growth in both on- and off-platform revenues.
– Digital classified advertising revenues of $20.0 million fell 16.2%, on a same store, day adjusted basis, largely reflecting expected declines in the challenged employment category.
• Same store, day adjusted circulation revenues fell 5.1% from the prior year quarter, an improvement from the 6.7% decline in the fourth quarter of 2017 reflecting our full access subscriber pricing initiatives, offset by expected declines in single copy.
• Digital-only subscriber volumes grew 51.0% year-over-year and now total approximately 382,000.
• Publishing segment Adjusted EBITDA was $77.8 million compared to $91.7 million in the prior year quarter.
more detail at: http://investors.gannett.com/press-release/gannett-reports-first-quarter-results