Gannett Co.

7950 Jones Branch Dr.

Year founded: 1906

Industry: Media

Post 200 Category: Top 125 Companies

Revenue: $7.38 Billion

Net Income/Loss: $1.32 Billion

Earnings per share: $4.92

Dividend: $1.04

Stockholder equity: $8.16 Billion

Auditor: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Stock: GCI

Assets: $15.40 Billion

Market capitalization: $19.99 Billion

52-week high: 90.42 4/20/2004

52-week low: 77.84 4/4/2005

Chairman and CEO: Douglas H. McCorkindale

CFO: Gracia C. Martore

Employees: 52500

Local employees: 2710

Description: Gannett is the nation's biggest newspaper publisher by circulation. In addition to USA Today, the nation's No. 1 paper with daily circulation of 2.2 million, the company owns 100 other newspapers and 21 television stations, including Washington's CBS affiliate, WUSA-9. The company also owns Gannett News Service, 17 dailies in Britain and direct marketing divisions.

Developments: In March, Gannett completed the acquisition of HomeTown Communications Network Inc., which includes one daily newspaper and 62 weekly and twice-weekly community newspapers, shoppers and telephone directories. The newspapers, which are in suburban Cincinnati and eastern Michigan, increase Gannett's total circulation by 740,000. Gannett also bolstered its advertising-delivery base with the April 2004 purchase of Captivate Network Inc., which puts television screens in elevators in more than 400 buildings in North America with another 1,000 to come. Terms were not disclosed for either deal. Also in Cincinnati, Gannett announced it would end the joint operating agreement its morning Cincinnati Enquirer maintains with the E.W. Scripps Co. evening newpapers, the Cincinnati Post and the Kentucky Post. The agreement, in which rival newspapers share business operations but maintain separate news staffs, will not be renewed after it expires in 2007, 30 years after it was signed. (The Post newspapers' circulation dropped to 42,219 by 2003 from 188,000 in 1977, according to industry figures.) The company, like the rest of the newspaper industry, continued to reach for younger readers, rolling out four free weeklies for readers younger than 35. Gannett's television stations enjoyed the quadrennial bump in advertising revenue from the Olympics and the presidential election. Its broadcast division reported a 14 percent jump in ad revenue for 2004 from 2003.

Executive Compensation
Chairman, President and CEO: Douglas H. McCorkindale
Total Cash: $4,050,000.00
Total Compensation: $20,669,885.00

President, Newspaper Division: Gary L. Watson
Total Cash: $1,475,000.00
Total Compensation: $5,250,833.00

President and CEO, Broadcasting Division: Craig A. Dubow
Total Cash: $900,000.00
Total Compensation: $3,600,689.00

President and CEO, Newsquest Media Group: Paul Davidson
Total Cash: $975,780.00
Total Compensation: $3,526,641.00

Chief Administrative Officer: Thomas L. Chapple
Total Cash: $750,000.00
Total Compensation: $2,944,619.00