It has shaped up to be the year of the media rebrand.
Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper publisher, is renaming itself USA Today Company, after its flagship national newspaper, the company announced on Tuesday.
“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,” Mike Reed, its chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Gannett’s name change will take effect on Nov. 18, when the company’s stock will switch to trading under the ticker symbol TDAY on the New York Stock Exchange.
The company is the latest to seek a new look: Dotdash Meredith, the magazine giant, is now called People Inc., named for People magazine. MSNBC, after its spinoff by its parent company, Comcast, into a new corporation separate from NBCUniversal, will soon go by MS NOW.
Alongside USA Today, which started as a national paper in 1982, Gannett publishes more than 200 local newspapers across 42 states, including The Des Moines Register, The Arizona Republic and The Detroit Free Press. The company also has a British local newspaper publishing arm, Newsquest, and a digital marketing brand.
Gannett, which has its origins more than a century ago as a small newspaper company in upstate New York, has gone through a tumultuous period in recent years. In 2019, it merged with the owner of the Gatehouse Media newspaper chain, with the combined company taking on the Gannett name and more than $1 billion in debt.
The company has done sweeping layoffs since the merger and has been the subject of protests by its workers. In its latest quarterly earnings report, Gannett said its debt had fallen below $1 billion for the first time since the merger.
Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email: [email protected]
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