This summary is based on the fourth quarter fiscal 2007 earnings call conducted by Gannett Co Inc. (GCI: chart) on February 1, 2008.

Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer: Craig A. Dubow
Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President: Gracia C. Martore
Senior vice president, Chief Digital Officer: Chris Saridakis
Director, Investor Relations: Jeffrey Heinz

Key Investors Issues

- The earnings for the quarter were $1.06 per share, including the impairment charge.
- Quarterly operating revenue was $1.9 billion.
- Gannett repurchased 2 million shares in the fourth quarter and 4.8 million shares in fiscal 2007.

Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2007 Financial Highlights

Despite the difficult economic environment and soft advertising market, earnings per share were $1.06.

EPS would have been $1.28, excluding the impairment charge.

Total operating revenues were $1.9 billion for the quarter.

Once again, the firm continued to size its expenses relative to the revenue picture. This continues to reflect the firm’s twin focus on an appropriate cost structure based on new realities, that mindful of not confusing short-term cyclical issues with longer term structural ones, and strategic investing in areas with potentially great growth promise that requires short-term resources, such as metro mix.

In the fourth quarter, the firm’s community newspapers in the U.S., the slowing economy driven by the meltdown in the housing market in some of the communities, all contributed to a very soft advertising environment. The four states in which the firm has a presence are the four states hardest hit by the downturn in real estate -- Arizona, California, Florida, and Nevada -- had a larger relative impact on the results.

Classified advertising was clearly the most severely impacted. Local advertising was down in the low single digits on a comparable week basis, reflecting macroeconomic trends that led to slower retail spending late in the holiday season after a positive November.

National advertising was down in the quarter at the domestic community newspapers and USA TODAY, although some categories were very strong at USA TODAY regardless of the difficult comparisons brought on by the extra week.

At Newsquest, the firm’s operations in the U.K., advertising softened as uncertainty increased in mid-December. There results were skewed by the extra week, but online revenue growth there was substantial in the fourth quarter.

At broadcasting segment, revenues declined as expected as the firm compared against almost $58 million in election related spending that benefited the fourth quarter last year. Here to, while the comparison was very tough, several categories were in positive territory for the quarter. As to the rest of 2008, the firm is well-positioned to take advantage of the anticipated political spending that will occur as the firm heads towards November and the Summer Olympics in Beijing will give a nice boost as well.

In the newspaper segment, the advertising softness late in the quarter had an impact on the firm’s results and exacerbated some of the cyclical trends that the firm is experiencing in its markets.

Revenues from local advertising were down 3.3%, national advertising and classified advertising both were down over 11% for the quarter, all on a comparable week basis.

At domestic newspapers, advertising was 9.3% lower on the same basis, resulting primarily from the real estate slowdown, which continued to drive the decline, particularly in the states of Arizona, California, Florida, and Nevada. The declines for the classified categories in most states were generally two times higher than the rest of the markets. In fact, properties in those states accounted for 40% of the decline in ad revenue and over 50% of the impact on NIBT in the quarter after adjusting for the 53rd week for the firm’s domestic community newspapers.

National advertising’s decline reflected a little tougher environment for USA TODAY with ad revenues down excluding the extra week. However, some categories in the quarter, financial, advocacy, and packaged goods, were up strongly in the period.

At Newsquest in the U.K., advertising trends were promising but softened in the last few weeks of December. Local and national categories, which had been positive and moving in the right direction, stalled a little. Excluding the extra week and on a constant currency basis, Newsquest finished the quarter with total revenues about 5% lower.

In the broadcasting segment, pro forma revenues were down 18% on a comparable week basis.