Buy it for content

Article Excerpt

GANNETT CO. INC. $61 (New York symbol GCI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; WSSF Rating: Above average) is one of the nation’s largest media companies. It publishes USA Today, 90 other daily newspapers and 1,000 non-daily newspapers. It also owns 23 TV stations. In the UK, it publishes 300 newspapers, including 17 dailies. Gannett’s earnings from continuing operations fell 1.8% in the third quarter of 2006, to $1.11 a share from $1.13 a year earlier. For the first time, the latest figure includes stock option costs, which totaled $0.03 a share. Revenue grew 2.7%, to $1.91 billion from $1.86 billion. The stock has moved down from $91 in 2004, due to investor concerns over ad competition from the Internet. The Internet provides great delivery efficiencies. But investors fail to appreciate the value of content that people want to read. Publishers are much better than Internet companies at creating this content. Now they are putting it on their web sites. Gannett trades…