Gannett reports 19% drop in UK ad revenues

by Sarah Crawley-Boevey, Media Week 17-Jul-08, 15:38

LONDON - US media group Gannett Corporation, the owner of UK regional publisher Newsquest, has reported a 19% fall in UK ad revenues over the year to 29 June.

Alongside the fall in classified ad sales, real estate revenues fell by 36.8% and employment ads dropped by 17.3% over the period, while car ad revenues are 14.9% lower than last year.

Gannett operates 300 newspaper titles in the UK including the Brighton Argus and Scotland's Sunday Herald.

Revenues across Gannett worldwide dropped 16.3% year on year, not helped by a 9.6% fall in retail ad revenues and a 33.9% dip in property revenues, a 25.6% fall in employment revenues and 13.9% drop in car ads.

Total ad revenues at Gannett fell from $418m (£209m) in June 2007 to $350m (£175m) in June this year.

In June, Gannett announced that it plans to write down its assets by up to $3bn to reflect the declining value of its operations in the US and the UK.

Speaking at a Deutsche Bank conference in New York, Gannett chief financial officer Gracia Martore said the bulk of the write-down reflects the declining value in Newsquest Media Group.