USA Today publisher Gannett posts $70.48 million profit in the Q2

The largest newspaper publisher in the US, Gannett Co Inc, reversed its $2.2 -illion net loss from last year to a $70.48-million profit in the second quarter of 2009, beating analysts' profit forecast.

The USA Today publisher that owns a US-wide chain of 84 other US newspapers, reported a 56-per cent decline in quarterly profit today because of the widespread plunge in advertising revenue in the US, but shares soared 19 per cent in pre-market trading as news of its profit beat Wall Street analysts' estimates.

For the last quarter, revenue fell 18 per cent to $1.41 billion, below analysts' projection of $1.46 billion and advertising revenue of all its US daily newspapers, dropped 32 per cent, marginally better than the 34 per cent decline of the first quarter. (See: Largest US publisher Gannett's quarterly profit down 60 per cent)

Gannett, which is better off financially than most other US newspaper publishers, as it has manageable debt, posted adjusted earnings of 46 cents per share, excluding special items, but include a $42.7 million pre-tax gain related to the company's debt exchange of $26.1 million after-tax.

The publisher incurred a $16.6-million in pre-tax costs on workforce restructuring (See: USA Today publisher Gannett to axe more than 1,000 jobs: report)  and $10.3 million on facility consolidations.

Gannett cut expenses by 10 per cent to $1.2 billion and aid it had been working on a number of ways to modernise its news-gathering and adapt to the Internet. In the meantime it has been resorting to lay-offs and furloughs for employees.