Report: Gannett went into financial decline after 2019 GateHouse merger

Gannett Co. Inc. (NYS:GCI) has been in an operational and financial tailspin since the company”™s 2019 merger with GateHouse Media.

The new data analysis published by Axios determined that Gannett”™s debt accrued from the GateHouse merger forced the company to “dramatically cut costs and bring its employee count nearly back to what it was prior to the 2019 deal.” As of Dec. 31, Gannett had 11,200 employees, down from 21,255 employees following the 2019 merger with GateHouse and only 562 more than the 10,638 individuals employed by a standalone Gannett.

The merger also forced Gannett to reduce its media presence ”“ it reduced the number of local-focused websites by 117 and sliced the number of weekly newspapers by 127. As a result of this shrinkage, Gannett’s total operating revenue in 2022 was $2.9 billion, down 8% year-over-year.

Nonetheless, Gannett is still the nation”™s largest newspaper chain with more than 200 print papers. Locally, the company publishes The Journal News, the Poughkeepsie Journal and the Times Herald-Record.