Gannett quarterly revenue, profit fall

NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) - USA Today publisher Gannett Co. Inc. (GCI.N) said on Thursday that revenue and profit fell because of weaker advertising sales at its newspapers.

First-quarter net income at Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, fell to $210.6 million, or 90 cents a share, from $235.3 million, or 99 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue fell to $1.87 billion from $1.88 billion in the quarter a year ago.

Gannett, which publishes 89 daily papers, is grappling with an ongoing migration of readers away from its printed editions to the Internet. That in turn has affected ad sales and paid circulation. Classified ad sales in particular have suffered.

The company plans to buy two daily papers in Connecticut from Tribune Co. TRB.N and is selling four other papers to GateHouse Media Inc. GHS.N

((Reporting by Robert MacMillan, editing by Martin Golan; Reuters Messaging: robert.macmillan.reuters.com@reuters.net; 646-223-6012; e-mail: robert.macmillan@reuters.com.)) Keywords: GANNETT RESULTS/

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