Gannett to Boost Digital Footprint with Investment in Digg

Newspaper publishing companies, in a bid to diversify their revenue base, are making endeavors to expand their presence in broadcasting and digital products. These companies are aiming to lower dependency on soft print media business and traditional advertising, thereby reducing susceptibility to economic conditions. In sync with this trend, Gannett Co., Inc. GCI recently invested an undisclosed amount in Digg, a digital media company.

This Series C round of investment paves the way for USA TODAY NETWORK, Gannett’s media network, to have access to Digg’s industry-leading data. This will help in enhancing the network’s content distribution capacities. Users too will be engaged in fresh content discovery and messaging products.

Moreover, USA TODAY NETWORK with unique digital visitors of over a 100 million per month and Digg with an audience of 40 million monthly fittingly set the stage for advertisers to reach a massive audience. Further, the collaboration would also provide complete advertising analytics to brand partners.

Gannett has been engaged in making strategic acquisitions since its Broadcasting and Digital, and Publishing properties were spun-off. The Broadcasting and Digital division formed a new entity called TEGNA Inc. TGNA.

With an aim to strengthen its position in the newspaper industry, Gannett, in Oct 2015 entered into a deal to acquire Journal Media Group, Inc., the owner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other newspapers. In Apr 2016, the company completed the acquisition of all of the remaining shares. Journal Media Group was formed after Journal Communications and E.W. Scripps merged their broadcasting operations and split the newspaper business. The merged broadcast and digital media company, headquartered in Cincinnati, retained the name, The E.W. Scripps Company SSP.

In Jul 2016, Gannett acquired the North Jersey Media Group Inc. The buyout includes The Record (Bergen County), the Herald News, as well as their associated digital assets. Gannett, which publishes USA Today and more than 100 other dailies, is expected to highly benefit from the aforementioned deal. This deal will also solidify the company’s presence in New Jersey.

Gannett’s other strategic investments include buyout of digital marketing solutions company, ReachLocal, Inc. and a minority stake in Spirited Media, which operates the mobile news site Billy Penn in Philadelphia.

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Gannett, which is also making an active attempt to acquire tronc, Inc. TRNC, currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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