uses see gannett disambiguation . not to be confused with guy gannett communications . this article is about the demerged gannett company inc. for the company known as gannett until 2015 that now holds broadcasting and digital assets see tegna inc. gannett company inc. headquarters of usa today and parent company gannett company in tysons corner virginia type public traded as nyse gci s & p 500 component industry print media founded 1906 ; 110 years ago 1906 founder frank gannett headquarters tysons corner virginia u.s. mclean mailing address key people john jeffry lewis chairman robert dickey president and ceo products newspapers revenue us 2.885 billion 2015 1 operating income us 169.431 million 2015 net income us 146.091 million 2015 total assets us 2.427 billion 2015 total equity us 1.058 billion 2015 number of employees 18 700 2015 1 divisions usa today network 2 subsidiaries newsquest media group website gannett.com gannett company inc. is a publicly traded american media holding company headquartered in tysons corner virginia near mclean in greater washington dc . 3 4 it is the largest u.s. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation . its assets include the national newspaper usa today and the erstwhile weekly usa weekend . its largest non national newspaper is the arizona republic in phoenix arizona . other significant newspapers include the indianapolis star the cincinnati enquirer the tennessean in nashville tennessee the courier journal in louisville kentucky the democrat and chronicle in rochester ny the des moines register the detroit free press and the news press in fort myers . in 2015 gannett co. inc. spun off its publishing business into a separate publicly traded entity while retaining the internet media divisions . immediately following the spin off the former parent company gannett co. inc. renamed itself tegna . the spun off publishing business renamed itself gannett . 5 contents 1 history 1.1 acquisition of belo corporation 1.2 acquisition of london broadcasting company stations 1.3 split and further deals 1.4 acquisitions 2 list of gannett co. assets 2.1 print media 3 significant digital investments 4 directors and senior executives 5 references 6 external links history edit this section needs expansion with information on gannett s early history 1923 1986 . you can help by adding to it . october 2012 gannett company inc. was formed in 1923 by frank gannett in rochester new york as an outgrowth of a newspaper business he had begun in elmira new york in 1906 . gannett who was known as a conservative 6 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 . 7 by 1979 the chain had grown to 79 newspapers . 8 in 1979 gannett acquired combined communications corp. operator of 17 television stations as well as an outdoor advertising division for 370 million . 9 10 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 . 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 . 11 gannett s oldest newspaper still in circulation is the leaf chronicle located in clarksville tennessee . in 2001 the company moved to its current headquarters in tysons corner 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 via wi fi in various formats including text for print publication still photos for print and online publication and audio and video for the news press website . 12 the practice has spread throughout the chain . 13 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 . 14 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 . 15 gannett logo used until march 2011 . in february 2012 gannett announced that it would implement a paywall system across all of its daily newspaper websites with non subscriber access will be limited to between five and 15 articles per month varying by newspaper . the usa today website became the only one to allow unrestricted access . 16 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 . 17 on august 21 2012 gannett acquired blinq media . 18 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 station . gannett threatened to pull all of its stations should the skirmish continue beyond october 7 and dish and gannett fail to reach an agreement . 19 20 the two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours . 21 acquisition of belo corporation edit 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 . 22 23 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 . 24 25 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 . 26 the deal was approved by the fcc on december 20 27 and it was completed on december 23 . 28 on february 28 2014 meredith corporation officially took over full control of kmov . 29 acquisition of london broadcasting company stations edit on may 14 2014 gannett announced the acquisition of six stations from the texas based london broadcasting company in a 215 million deal including kcen tv nbc in waco temple bryan kytx cbs in tyler longview kiii abc in corpus christi kbmt abc nbc in beaumont port arthur kxva fox in abilene sweetwater and kidy fox in san angelo . the company s coo phil hurley will also join gannett to continue his leadership role at the six stations . 30 the acquisition was completed on july 8 2014 ; in total gannett stations now serve 83 % of households in the state . 31 post acquisition gannett now outright owns and operates their first fox affiliates kidy & kxva . split and further deals edit on august 5 2014 gannett announced that it plans to split into two independent publicly traded companies one focusing on its newspapers and publishing which will retain the gannett name and one on broadcasting . robert dickey who currently leads gannett s newspaper group will serve as ceo of the former company leaving gannett s remaining broadcasting and digital operations under the leadership of martore . in a statement she explained that the split plans were significant next steps in our ongoing initiatives to increase shareholder value by building scale increasing cash flow sharpening management focus and strengthening all of our businesses to compete effectively in today s increasingly digital landscape . additionally the company announced that it would buy out the remainder of classified ventures a joint venture between gannett and several other media companies for 1.8 billion giving it full ownership of properties such as cars.com . 32 33 on april 21 2015 gannett announced that the publishing arm would continue to use the gannett name while the broadcasting and digital company would be named tegna an anagram of gannett . 34 the split was completed on june 29 2015 . the split was structured so that the old gannett changed its name to tegna and then spun off its publishing interests as a new gannett company . on october 7 2015 gannett struck a deal to buy the journal media group for 280 million giving it control of publications in over 100 markets in the midwestern and southern u.s. similar to what gannett had earlier done with its broadcasting assets the milwaukee based journal had separated its publishing and broadcasting arms in april 2015 with the e. w. scripps company acquiring the television and radio properties owned by the former s technical predecessor journal communications and spinning out their respective publishing operations into journal media group . 35 in december 2015 gannett announced that its local newspapers would be branded as the usa today network signifying a closer association with the national usa today paper . 36 in april 2016 gannett made an unsolicited bid to acquire the tribune publishing company for 12.25 per share or around 400 million . this deal was rejected by tribune s shareholders in may 2016 ; in turn gannett increased its offer to around 15 per share around 800 million . following the first rejection tribune ceo michael w. ferro jr. stated on may 17 2016 that he intended to make a bid to acquire gannett instead . 37 38 39 acquisitions edit 1906 elmira gazette 1912 the ithaca journal 1928 democrat and chronicle 1971 federated publications 1971 honolulu star bulletin 1972 pacific and southern company inc taken over by combined communications 1976 tucson citizen 40 1977 the poughkeepsie journal 1977 speidel newspapers 41 1978 combined communications owner of newspapers television stations radio stations and outdoor advertising 42 1979 the news journal company from dupont 43 1979 the tennessean 44 1982 mississippi publishers owner of the the clarion ledger 45 1983 wtcn tv now kare from metromedia and wlvi from field communications 1985 des moines register and tribune co. 46 1985 family weekly from cbs 47 1986 courier journal and louisville times company 48 1986 evening news association and the detroit news 49 1986 arkansas gazette 1990 great falls tribune 1992 the honolulu advertiser 1995 multimedia broadcaster and publisher 50 1997 army times publishing company 51 1997 asbury park