NEW YORK - In the face of a rocky economy and dwindling ad revenues and circulation, newspapers have two things going for them: Consumers will always seek relevant content, and advertisers need to connect to those consumers, Gannett Co., Inc., Chairman, President and CEO Craig Dubow told the 36th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference Wednesday.

Newspapers are reaching wider audiences on more platforms, reader satisfaction with local coverage is on the upswing, and Gannett will work to find more ad solutions to support the growing demand for digital newspaper services, he said. Dubow also announced the company's new initiative, ContentOne, aimed to "completely change the way we share content across the company, especially at the local level."

ContentOne, based on the Web start-up model, will help develop and gather information more efficiently across the company's properties, will view content as a company-wide product and will put Gannett properties in a position to become content creators for their own ad partners, Dubow announced at the conference.

"We must execute these plans, and we'll be ready when the economy returns," Dubow said.

Gannett is finishing up a very difficult year, levelling a 10 percent headcount reduction last week across its U.S. Community Publishing Division, the most sweeping job cuts the newspaper industry has ever seen, while also putting jobs at its UK Newsquest titles on the chopping block. And, Dubow said, those cuts may not be the last for the largest newspaper publisher in the United States.

"This has been a very, very difficult year. We will always size to the revenue that's there," Dubow told the audience. Company officials will have to see what the economy has in store for 2009, and "will size to that."

Digital revenue from Gannett's newspapers will total US$700 million to $725 million, and combined with digital revenue from its broadcast holdings, all digital revenue is expected to reach $1 billion, 15 percent of the company's total revenue, Dubow said.

Content will continue to fuel audience growth, and beyond local advertising, the company will look to build out its infrastructure to grow national advertising, said Chris Saridakis, the company's senior vice president and chief digital officer.

Saridakis pointed to Metromix, Momslikeme.com and its High School Sports Network as examples of how the company's digital strategy is making headway. The sites are local networks tied together as national brands. Metromix is a local entertainment network available in 28 Gannett newspapers and broadcast sites, and counts its unique visitor numbers overall at 1.5 million. High School Sports is a platform across the company's newspapers and broadcast sites, and has 2.1 million uniques, while and Momslikeme.com is available for 80 local markets, 63 markets of which Gannett has a property, 17 that do not. All the niche areas are attractive for advertisers.

Other digital holdings include ShopLocal, PointRoll and Ripple 6, part of Gannett's digital strategy to grow digital marketing businesses. "These companies, combined with our growing number of content verticals, are allowing us to create new ways to monetize social media," Saridakis said.

Overall, the Gannett Network sees 26 million unique visitors each month, with the average visit at 13 minutes and 12 page views on average per visit, he said.

Meanwhile, as the company works on its digital revenue growth, the economic recession has taken a toll on advertising both in the United States and United Kingdom, Gracia Martore, executive vice president and CFO of Gannett, told the conference.

Gannett's total revenue is down 14 percent from last year, and publication revenue is down 18 percent from last year, she said. In the United States, retail ads for the company are down 14 percent, national ads are down 16 percent, and classifieds are down 30 percent.

At Newsquest in the United Kingdom, total revenue is down 25 percent, and total ad revenue is down 31 percent in the fourth quarter to date, Martore said.

In the fourth quarter, the company expects to see "significant" severance expenses, totalling $45 million to $50 million.

Revenue for 2007 totalled $7.4 billion, and estimated revenue for 2008 is at $6.8 billion. Operating cash flow in 2007 was at $2 billion, and is expected to drop to $1.5 billion by the end of the year for 2008, she said.