Did you notice anything different yesterday in the media world? Probably not, but it was a new day at least for Gannett. The long awaited split between broadcast and print occurred yesterday, June 29. Despite clearly defined plans for digital transformation, how this impacts the two companies long term remains very much in question.
The newspaper side of the business retains the Gannett name, while the broadcast side takes on the name TEGNA. TEGNA is an anagram for Gannett without the double letters. Gannett's revenue growth has come from their broadcast side, which many says have helped prop up the print side of their business.
With broadcast gone, how will Gannett whether upcoming storms? First quarter advertising revenue was off 9%, with projections for second quarter not fairing any better on the print side. Programmatic ad buying for online publications impacts larger markets and national websites most, and that is the segment where most of Gannett's websites would fall. This leaves a lot of questions yet to be answered.
Rick Edmonds wrote yesterday on www.poynter.org that "Gannett shares were down 5.2percent for the day (with stocks generally off 2 percent because of the Greek and Puerto Rican debt crisis) TEGNA's shares were up 5.1 percent."
Granted, that is only one day of trading but something definitely worth watching to see if Wall Street is buying what the new Gannett is selling. Locally, Gannett titles are spinning this as a way to build up community journalism.
In Indianapolis, publisher Karen Ferguson penned a nice column about the changes and how it strengthens Gannett and specifically the Indianapolis Star. And while Indianapolis celebrated Gannett Day with a mayoral proclamation, no one is proclaiming this is a successful model. At least not yet.
