Gannett Co. announced broadcasting revenues of $184 million in the second quarter, up 20.3% from the same quarter a year ago. Revenues include Gannett's elevator-TV service Captivate.
Broadcasting's operating revenue was $78.4 million, a whopping 56% gain over the same quarter last year.
"The revenue increase reflects stronger core revenues, substantially higher advertising related to political and issue spending and solid revenue growth at Captivate," Gannett said in a statement.
"We continued to make progress on our goals to provide engaging, relevant content any way the consumer wants while also expanding our reach and offering better solutions for our advertisers," said Gannett Chairman/CEO Craig A. Dubow. "Our strong results this quarter reflect very positive revenue trends for our Broadcast and Digital segments and moderating revenue declines in Publishing as we continued to close the revenue gap in the quarter. Stronger core advertising demand and increased political spending drove revenue growth in Broadcasting while positive revenue results at CareerBuilder and PointRoll contributed to revenue growth in the Digital segment."
Gannett's publishing division, which includes USA Today, showed "the best comparison quarter for advertising revenues since mid-2007," said Gannett.
Gannett owns 23 TV stations and 82 daily papers.
