News-media roundup: 3 top Ala. papers to go all-digital; Gannett loses money again, but digital gains drive stock up

"One of the nation’s biggest publishers has decided to stop printing Alabama’s three largest newspapers and make them digital-only," reports Alexandra Bruell of The Wall Street Journal. She calls it "the latest in a long string of local paper closures," but the Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times and the Press-Register of Mobile aren't closing, only ending their print operations. They are owned by Advance Publications, a 24-paper chain that aggressively cut back printing of the Times-Picayune in New Orleans. Its main identity is NOLA.com, and the Alabama papers are branded AL.com. "The company will keep publishing individual e-editions for each paper that will still charge subscribers," Bruell reports. "AL.com doesn’t have a paywall."

The company "doesn’t plan to stop producing printed newspapers in its other regions next year, said Caroline Harrison, CEO of Advance Local. She didn’t rule out the possibility in the future," Bruell reports. "The organization also owns newspapers in other areas including Oregon, New Jersey and New York." Harrison said, “Where print continues to be profitable we’re all in.”

Tom Bates, president of the Alabama division told Bruell, “The print side of our business does not make economic sense in Alabama.” Bruell notes, "The print readership of all three papers has been shrinking rapidly, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. Their expected combined circulation of about 30,000 early next year is a fraction of the 260,000 the papers boasted just a decade ago, Mr. Bates said." He said Advance has no plans to lay off journalists. The printing operation has 110 employees, including 74 employees in production and 36 people in sales, operations and circulation.

Gannett Co., the nation's largest newspaper publisher, lost money for the second straight quarter, it said in a quarterly earnings report this morning. The firm "reported a net loss of $54.1 million in the three months ending Sept. 30, compared with net income of $14.7 million in the same period a year earlier. The company expects a total net loss of $60 million to $70 million this year, an outlook it had forecast previously," reports USA Today, its flagship. "The latest results come after a 'challenging' second quarter, which was followed by Gannett laying off roughly 400 employees, or 3% of its U.S. workforce, to trim costs."

Despite losing money after forecasting a profit, Gannett's stock rose this morning because it reported record digital marketing revenue, Seeking Alpha reports. It had risen 11.5% by midday, Poynter reports. The company's digital marketing solutions core platform revenue was $118.7M, "up 5.3% year-over-year, SA reports. "Digital-only paid subscribers rose 28.5% to 1.98M at the end of Q3 2022. Average revenue per user reached $2,511 during the quarter."

Newspaper sales: Ohio's AIM Media Midwest has bought The Bryan Times and the Northwest Signal, both dailies, from Christopher Cullis and Bryan Publishing. AIM said it had re-hired all current employees and promoted president Sally Heaston to publisher, a news release said.

Cherry Road Media, which has built itself largely on buying Gannett papers, has bought the Star-News of McCall, Idaho. The company now owns 79 papers in 14 states. The Star-News was owned for almost 50 years by Central Idaho Publishing, a partnership of  Tom and Tomi Grote of McCall and A.L. "Butch" Alford Jr. of Lewiston, who is senior publisher/editor of Tribune Publishing Co., which owns The Lewiston Morning Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, among other assets, a release said.