Key Points
- Gannett is rebranding its editorial operation to USA Today Company.
- The rebrand takes effect in mid-November.
- Executives said the brand refresh pays homage to the country’s national newspaper.
Gannett Company says it will shed its current corporate identity and become USA Today Company by the middle of the month.
The new name (stylized as USA Today Co.) takes effect November 18, the same day that the company starts trading under a new ticker symbol (TDAY) on the New York Stock Exchange.
In a statement on Tuesday, executives at USA Today Company said the decision to rebrand “leverages the power of the newspaper that brought America together by promoting understanding and fostering unity with a focus on being the trusted digital platform that connects audiences across the country.”
“As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation, we also honor the legacy of the newspaper that has focused on uniting America as we evolve to be the platform that powers its voice,” said Mike Reed, the Chairman and CEO of USA Today Company. “We are changing our name and rebranding to embrace our most notable masthead – which is committed to delivering fact-based news, unbiased coverage and essential content that meets audiences in the center. Our focus on empowering and enriching communities at a local and national level as a growth-focused media and digital marketing solutions business is what unites our company in service to our nationwide USA Today Network.”
USA Today’s history is, to some degree, pre-dated by its sister newspaper – the company owns or operates more than 200 daily and weekly newspapers across the country, each with its own digital news operation that has partially, if not fully, supplanted its traditional print revenue in recent years.
Some of the major newspapers that are part of the USA Today Network include the Detroit Free press, the Florida Times-Union, the Tennessean, the Des Moines Record, the Indianapolis Star, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Arizona Republic, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the El Paso Times.
In 2015, Gannett Company spun out its television assets into a new publicly-traded company called TEGNA.
