The shares of Gannett Co., Inc. (GCI) rallied after the news of its better-than-expected third quarter profit hit the market. The shares of Gannett rocketed to close at $11.74 on Sep 29, 2009 , up nearly 17.6% from the previous day’s close. Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., notified that it now expects third quarter earnings in the range of 39 cents to 42 cents a share, which far outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 29 cents. However, this marks a sharp decline from 76 cents delivered in the prior-year quarter. On a reported basis, including special charges like facility consolidations and workforce restructuring, EPS is expected to be between 25 cents and 31 cents. The stringent cost-cutting measures and lower newsprint expenses have helped to drive the bottom-line results. After trimming its work force by 10%, Gannett revealed plans to further slash ...

It has been a long time since we had good news from the newspaper industry. But thanks to today’s upbeat figures from Gannett (NYSE:GCI), the industry is surging. Lee Enterprises (NYSE:LEE) has taken the lead.

There is a rare bit of good news for the newspaper industry this morning – and it’s a whopper!

Share prices across the downtrodden sector are soaring today thanks to word from Gannett (NYSE:GCI) that the company expects to handily beat its third-quarter earnings projections.

Gannett told its investors today to expect per share earnings (after one-time costs) in the range of 39 cents to 42 cents when the company releases its latest quarterly figures on October 19.

Before the press release, estimates pegged the figure at 28 cents per share.

Not surprising, the increase is not due to a sudden increase in subscriptions or advertising revenue. Instead, a reduction in paper costs and

...

With consumers looking for good value in their purchases during tough economic times, Valassis (VCI) finds itself in a sweet spot.

< ?DART(15);?> Today, the media and marketing services company also finds itself as a top-performing Zacks #1 Rank, with shares that have advanced approximately 7%.

(In addition to company-specific factors, VCI is most likely getting a boost today from news out of Gannett (GCI) that third-quarter earnings are expected to top expectations.)

VCI offers a wide range of marketing services to customer packaged goods manufacturers, retailers, technology companies and other customers. It is the only company that provides a combination of home-delivered media products and services at the market, neighborhood and household targeted levels, an can integrate all three levels of targeting into a single solution.

The company is gaining a lot of traction in this environment from its coupon books and

...

When you invest in a stock, one of the best things you can see is analysts raising their expectations about what the company is going to earn for the current fiscal year. There are several ways of measuring this, but the following is a list of the companies with the biggest increases in their consensus earnings expectations for this year over the last month.

To make the list, a company had to have a current mean (average) estimate of over 50 cents, be a member of the S&P 500 and have at least three estimates for this year. The 50-cent restriction was put in to prevent small dollar changes that are huge percentage moves from dominating the list (going from a penny expected to a nickel). Having 3 or more estimates also helps insure it was not a fluke. The S&P 500 restriction was put in to make sure we

...

Shares of Gannett Co. (GCI) surged 28.9% to close at $4.50 on Jul 15, 2009. The upbeat sentiment in the stock was due to the company’s stronger-than-expected second-quarter results, due to cost-cutting initiatives such as job cuts, salary reduction, furloughs and lower newsprint expenses. The company is laying off nearly 1,400 employees or about 3% of its headcount.

Gannett reported EPS of $0.46, excluding special items, surpassing the Street estimate of $0.37. Although, EPS fell more than 50% year over year, it increased sharply by 84% on a sequential basis. On a reported basis, the company's EPS was $0.30, compared to a net loss per share of $10.03 in the prior-year quarter.

Total revenue, however, tumbled 17.8% to $1,412.6 million due to sustained weakness in the U.S. and U.K. economies. The turbulent economy continues to hamper advertising revenue. Gannett's Publishing segment revenue declined 25.8% to $1,117.3 million as newspaper advertising

...

Every time the United States goes through a recession, the pundits all race to be the first to proclaim that “Buy and Hold” is dead.  I can’t watch a financial news channel or read a financial website without some mention of this proclamation.  Well I’m growing tired of it, and if it were up to me, I’d prohibit anyone else from making this point for the rest of 2009.

Buy and Hold is not dead, and I’m on a mission to prove it.  Buy and Hold has worked brilliantly for decades, and it will continue to do so in the future.  The stock you bought in 2007 is worth less now than what you bought it for?  Oh boohoo, go cry me a river…somewhere else.  The economy has peaks and troughs, and we’re in the middle of one of the more serious

...

Abu Dhabi Buys Daimler Stake; Tata Launches Nano; Walgreen Beats 2Q Estimates; Banks Hurt by Plunging Commercial Property Prices; Gannett Furloughs Workers Again; Oil Nears 3-Month High; TreeHouse Foods Climbs on Private-Label Buying

Abu Dhabi’s state-controlled International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) said it would buy a 9.1% stake in the German automaker Daimler AG (DAI) for almost $2.72 billion (2 billion euros). It also pumped $1.41 billion into Aabar Investment PJSC, giving the Middle East emirate majority control in the IPIC, Reuters reported. Tata Motors Ltd. (ADR: TTM) announced it will begin sales of the Nano, the world’s ...

Gannett (GCI) shares rocketed 14% today after the company reported that online advertising revenue at USA Today, its flagship domestic paper, grew 27% year-over-year in February. This is the largest online revenue increase among the national newspapers and is in stark contrast to many, including the New York Times (NYT), which began to suffer recession-induced declines in online ad revenues in 4Q08. The Tech section of USATODAY.com drove growth, doubling its unique visitors to 1.9 million. Newspapers have scrambled to build website operations as readers and advertisers move online. Many are now suffering the consequences of an ad-only business model. Future survival will likely necessitate a fee-based system, whether in the form of subscriptions or micro-payments for mini-subscriptions (columns, blogs, sections) Despite vigorous growth, revenue from USA Today's nascent online operations was not enough to compensate for tumbling print advertising revenue, and together they fell ...

Aspire Misery Index for the Week Ended, February 6, 2009 (as of Wed. a.m. 2/4/09)

February 4, 2009 ndash; As of Wednesday morning our Misery Index has been accumulating a stream of data points that reflect, in our opinion, further erosion in the U.S. economy. The biggest concern we have, near term, is the labor market which is the key metric for the U.S. economy. After all, consumers represent more than 70% of GDP. The common theme right now is that businesses are reigning in their costs, cutting budgets and jobs and lowering expectations as much as possible right now with hopes that the bars have been set sufficiently low going forward. There is little confidence in the near term that credit markets are going to free up for businesses so they will have to get by on operating cash flow:

Profit Warnings ndash; ADC Telecom, Rockwell Automation, Hologic, CEDC, …

Publishing – Circulation and Ad Revenue are Falling at an Accelerating Rate

The publishing industry is suffering accelerating declines in circulation and ad sales. Print advertising industry-wide has been decelerating for several years, eroded by the secular migration to the Internet.

Newspapers have fared far worse than magazines, as web-based news options have proliferated in recent years. Circulation of newspapers fell 2-3% on average each year from 2005 through 2007, and that has accelerated with to the mid-single digits in recent months as the economy slowed. Ad revenue is falling between 15-20% at many publications.

National newspapers, however, have out-performed the group significantly, particularly USA Today, a subsidiary of Gannett (

...