How BuzzFeed's Growth Compares With The New York Times, Gannett And Tronc

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti just sent out his year-end memo to employees. The year-in-review style memo highlights the incredible growth numbers the online news giant continues to deliver.

“As the leading independent, pure digital media company, we’ve shown we can build a great business by embracing the internet instead of fighting it,” Peretti wrote.

In addition to accumulating a global audience of more than 500 million readers, BuzzFeed grew revenue by 65 percent in 2016.

How does that number compare to BuzzFeed’s traditional media rivals?

In the past four quarters, the New York Times Co (NYSE: NYT) has delivered revenue growth in the range of -3 percent to 0 percent.

Tronc Inc (NASDAQ: TRNC)’s quarterly revenue growth has ranged from -6 percent to 1 percent.

Gannett Co Inc (NYSE: GCI) revenue growth has fallen within a range of -57 percent to 10 percent.

Peretti reported that BuzzFeed has now logged 65 consecutive quarters of positive revenue growth. Clearly, BuzzFeed has figured out the recipe for news in the digital age.

“It will take decades for analog print and broadcast to decline, and TV will continue to be very profitable for many years, but in the long run, the internet will win,” Peretti concluded.

This year, shares of Tronc are up 49.6 percent. New York Times shares are up 1.7 percent. Gannett shares are down 38.2 percent.

Image Credit: By Katy Blackwood - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons