Gannett Launches ‘Support Local’ To Help Small Businesses

Platform Enables Local Communities to Provide Their Favorite Businesses With Much Needed Resources

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gannett (NYSE: GCI) today announced the launch of Support Local, a platform to help communities support and access small businesses all across the nation that are facing significant economic challenges due to the spreading coronavirus pandemic.

In the United States, small businesses with less than 20 employees make up almost 90% of all U.S. business enterprises in the country, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. As a news organization operating in hundreds of communities across the nation, Gannett’s 260 daily local news brands have strong relationships with their small business communities. A joint op-ed from Gannett executives Maribel Perez Wadsworth, President of News and Publisher of USA TODAY, and Kevin Gentzel, Chief Revenue Officer, published in USA TODAY and across all of Gannett’s local news sites on March 18th encouraged communities to show strong support for local businesses in creative ways such as the purchase of gift cards and restaurant delivery and announced the company would be launching tools to support small businesses.

Gannett created Support Local to provide communities with an easy way to discover opportunities to help their favorite local businesses and access special services they may be providing during these times. The site, which provides free business listings, allows readers to search by city, and filter by categories such as restaurants, bars, cafes, and bakeries. It currently promotes the purchase of restaurant gift cards and will be adding additional features like special hours, remote access, delivery services, and special offers as alternative means to provide support.

Support Local is leveraging Gannett’s network of local news brands and USA TODAY to quickly scale up its presence in communities across the nation. Businesses and readers alike can add new listings and all businesses are verified using Google Places API to ensure proper and accurate business information. Launching with more than 1,000 restaurants, the platform will soon expand to include additional categories of businesses such as spas, salons and retail stores.

“We believe local businesses are the heartbeat of America,” said Kevin Gentzel, Chief Revenue Officer, Gannett. “We proudly support businesses in all of our communities and that is exactly why we launched LOCALiQ in 2017 – to help business owners thrive and grow. Support Local will give our readers and local communities the opportunity to ensure sustainability for their favorite businesses as we all strive to make it through COVID-19 together.”

To find or add a local business in your community to the new Support Local site, please visit supportlocal.usatoday.com.

About Gannett

Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is an innovative, digitally focused media and marketing solutions company committed to strengthening communities across our network. With an unmatched reach at the national and local level, Gannett touches the lives of nearly 140 million people monthly with our Pulitzer-Prize winning content, consumer experiences and benefits, and advertiser products and services. Gannett brands include the USA TODAY and more than 260 daily local newspaper brands, digital marketing services companies ReachLocal, WordStream, and ThriveHive and U.K. media company Newsquest. Effective November 20, 2019, following the completion of its merger with Gannett, New Media Investment Group Inc. trades on the New York Stock Exchange under Gannett Co., Inc. and its ticker symbol has changed to “GCI”. To connect with us, visit www.gannett.com.