USA Today Co., Inc., formerly known as Gannett ( ), is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation.
USA Today Co. owns the national newspaper USA Today, as well as multiple local newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press; The Indianapolis Star; The Cincinnati Enquirer; The Columbus Dispatch; The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Florida; The Tallahassee Democrat in Tallahassee, Florida; The Tennessean in Nashville, Tennessee; The Daily News Journal, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee; The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky; the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York; The Des Moines Register; the El Paso Times; The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, Arizona; The News-Press in Fort Myers, Florida; the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; the Argus Leader; The Pueblo Chieftain; the Redding Record Searchlight in Redding, California; the Reno Gazette-Journal in Reno, Nevada; and the Great Falls Tribune.
In 2015, Gannett split into two publicly traded companies, one focusing on newspapers and publishing and the other on broadcasting. The broadcasting company took the name Tegna, and owns about 68 TV stations. The newspaper company inherited the Gannett name. The split was structured so that Tegna is the legal successor of the old Gannett, while the new Gannett is a spin-off.
In 2018 Gannett along with 90 additional Fortune 500 companies had "paid an effective federal tax rate of 0% or less" as a result of Donald Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
In November 2019, New Media Investment Group acquired and merged its GateHouse Media subsidiary into Gannett, creating the largest newspaper publisher in the United States, which adopted the Gannett name. Mike Reed was named CEO.
On November 4, 2025, the company announced it was renaming Gannett to USA Today Co. The rebranding took effect on November 18, 2025 and the stock is trading under the ticker "TDAY".
History 1906–1983 Gannett Company, Inc. was formed in 1923 by Frank Gannett in Rochester, New York, as an outgrowth of the Elmira Gazette, a newspaper business he had begun in Elmira, New York, in 1906. Gannett, who was known as a conservative, gained fame and fortune by purchasing small independent newspapers and developing them into a large chain, a 20th-century trend that helped the newspaper industry remain financially viable.
In April 1957, Paul Miller succeeded Frank Gannett as president and CEO when the group held 19 newspapers over four states; Florida not among them. Miller became frustrated after repeated unsuccessful attempts to acquire a foothold in Florida, then targeted Brevard County. He spoke to Marie Holderman, the owner and publisher of the Cocoa Tribune, and shared his plan for a morning daily paper in Brevard County. Holderman was not interested. Over the next few years, several Gannett representatives attempted to negotiate a purchase, without success.
In the late 1950s, Al Neuharth was assistant managing editor at the Miami Herald and became acquainted with Marie Holderman. In 1963, he was hired by Miller to manage the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York. Two years later, he asked Miller for an opportunity to persuade Holderman.
In their meeting, Neuharth complimented the Tribune, but told Holderman that she lacked the resources to win a competition. Holderman was invited to Rochester for a meeting to talk with Gannett executives. The Gannett corporate airplane flew four people from Florida to New York.
John Pound, managing editor joined Holderman and her two granddaughters on the trip in May 1965. Convinced of Gannett's determination and at age 81, Holderman decided to sell, and Pound told the executives they wanted $1.9 million in compensation. Neuharth's response: "We told them that was a fair price and we certainly paid her more than she expected to get."
In 1966, Neuharth took charge of Gannett Florida. After a few months, the Hudson family in Titusville decided to sell the Star Advocate to Gannett for $1 million.
Neuharth started Today in Cocoa, which eventually became Florida Today. By June 1966, paid subscriptions were 33,000, far exceeding their goal of 20,000 by the end of the year. The paper became profitable in 1968 after just 33 months.
Miller was succeeded by Al Neuharth in 1973.
In 1978, Gannett acquired Combined Communications Corp., operator of 2 major daily newspapers, the Oakland Tribune and The Cincinnati Enquirer, seven television stations, 13 radio stations, as well as an outdoor advertising division, for $370 million. The outdoor advertising became known as Gannett Outdoor, before being acquired by Outdoor Systems (previously a division of 3M), before the company was sold to Infinity Broadcasting, which later became part of Viacom, and was part of CBS Corporation, until 2014 when CBS Outdoor went independent and became Outfront Media.
In 1979 The News Journal in Wilmington, Delaware was purchased from DuPont and The Tennessean in Nashville when the chain had grown to 79 newspapers.Neiva, Elizabeth M. Chain Building: The Consolidation of the American Newspaper Industry, 1955-80 , Business and Economic History, 24(1), (Fall 1995) In 1981, Gannett partnered with anchors Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer to start a production company MacNeil/Lehrer-Gannett Productions. Gannett broke up in June 1986. In 1982, the broadcasting unit partnered with Telepictures Corporation to start out its Newscope program.
Gannett announced the launch of the national newspaper titled USA Today on April 20, 1982, it initially launched on September 15, 1982, in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas. for a newsstand price of 25¢ (equivalent to ¢ in )
Gannett's oldest newspaper is the Berrow's Worcester Journal based in Worcester, England and founded in 1690. In the United States, the oldest newspapers still in circulation are the Poughkeepsie Journal, founded in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1785, and The Leaf-Chronicle founded in Clarksville, Tennessee in 1808.
1984–2013 In 1984, John Curley was appointed president and COO. In 1985, Curley became CEO and continued as president.
The company was headquartered in Rochester until 1986, when it moved to Arlington County, Virginia. Its former headquarters building, the Gannett Building, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
In 1986, Gannett and former NBC chief executive officer Grant Tinker formed GTG Entertainment, a television production company based at The Culver Studios in Culver City, which produced the first season of Baywatch and the short-lived television version of USA Today titled USA Today: The Television Show. It was dissolved in 1990.
In 1994, the company took over production of Inside Washington, from Post-Newsweek Television, before WJLA-TV and Allbritton Communications took over in 2004.
Douglas H. McCorkindale succeeded Curley as CEO in 2000 and chairman in 2001. That year, the company moved to its headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
Beginning in 2005 at the Fort Myers News-Press, Gannett pioneered the mojo concept of mobile multimedia journalists, reporters who were initially untethered from conventional newsrooms and drove around their communities filing hyperlocal news in various formats including text for print publication, still photos for print and online publication, and audio and video for the News-Press website. The practice has spread throughout the chain.
In 2010, Gannett increased executive salaries and bonuses; for example, Bob Dickey, Gannett's U.S. newspapers division president, was paid $3.4 million in 2010, up from $1.9 million the previous year. The next year, the company laid off 700 U.S. employees to cut costs. In the memo announcing the layoffs, Dickey wrote, "While we have sought many ways to reduce costs, I regret to tell you that we will not be able to avoid layoffs."Bullard, Gabe (June 21, 2011). "Gannett Executive Bonuses Criticized Amid Layoffs" . Louisville, KY: WFPL.
On March 7, 2011, Gannett replaced the stylized "G" logo in use since the 1970s (notably used on its TV stations as a corporate/local ID with different animations), and adopted a new company tagline: "It's all within reach."Lieberman, David (March 4, 2011). "Gannett launches corporate branding campaign". USA Today.
In February 2012, Gannett announced that it would implement a paywall system across all of its daily newspaper websites, with non-subscriber access limited to between five and fifteen articles per month, varying by newspaper. The USA Today website became the only one to allow unrestricted access.Bercovici, Jeff (February 22, 2012). "Gannett Building Paywalls Around All Its Papers Except USA Today". Forbes.
On March 24, 2012, the company announced that it would discipline 25 employees in Wisconsin who had signed the petition to recall Governor Scott Walker, stating that this open public participation in a political process was a violation of the company's code of journalistic ethics and that their primary responsibility as journalists was to maintain credibility and public trust in themselves and the organization.
On August 21, 2012, Gannett acquired Blinq Media.
Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered a dispute against Dish Network regarding compensation fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopper digital video recorders. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for Gannett's television stations. Gannett threatened to pull all of its stations should the skirmish continue beyond October 7, and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement. The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours.
Acquisition of Belo Corporation, 2013
On June 13, 2013, Gannett announced plans to buy Dallas-based Belo Corporation for $1.5 billion and the assumption of debt. The purchase would add 20 additional stations to Gannett's portfolio and make the company the fourth largest television broadcaster in the U.S. with 43 stations. Because of ownership conflicts that exist in markets where both Belo and Gannett own television stations and newspapers, the use of a third-party company (Sander Media, LLC, owned by former Belo executive Jack Sander) as a licensee to buy stations to be operated by the owner of a same-market competitor and concerns about any possible future consolidation of operations of Gannett- and Belo-owned properties in markets where both own television stations or collusion involving the Gannett and Sander stations in retransmission consent negotiations, anti-media-consolidation groups (such as Free Press) and pay television providers (such as Time Warner Cable and DirecTV) have called for the FCC to block the acquisition.
On December 16, 2013, the United States Department of Justice announced that Gannett, Belo, and Sander would need to divest Belo's station in St. Louis, KMOV, to a government-approved third-party that would be barred from entering into any agreements with Gannett, in order to fully preserve competition in advertising sales with Gannett-owned KSDK. The deal was approved by the FCC on December 20, and it was completed on December 23.Gannett Completes Its Acquisition of Belo, TVNewsCheck, Retrieved December 23, 2013 On February 28, 2014, Meredith Corporation officially took over full control of KMOV.
Acquisition of London Broadcasting Company stations, 2014