Gannett is seeing some advertising imporovement overall at its U.S. newspapers but the UK division continues to have problems in a weak ad market. On the online front, USA Today is expanding its online offerings but has yet to take full advantage from a revenue perspective. According to AP, USAT’s 13 blogs brought in 5 million page views in May but no advertising is tied specifically. USAT’s onlijne revenues are up 15.9 percent.
By comparison, the broadcast division with 21 TV stations estimates 59 percent in online revenue growth for the second quarter compared to last year.
-- Sue Clark-Johnson, president of the newspaper division, said one “pleasant aurprise” has been the newspapers success in the 18-34 demo. For instance, the Wilmington News Journal reaches 83 percent of that demo nearly five times a week through free paper Spark and Delawareonline.com.
-- Gannett CEO Craig Dubrow: “The real key in [reaching] the 18-34 and under audiences is the fact of how much they do read ... and we want to take every advantage we can of that, but we must be branded directly in a way that we can attract those kinds of users.”
-- By the end of 2006, one third of the newspaper division’s journalists will have been trained to use video.