What happened Shares of news media giant Gannett (NYSE: GCI) jumped after the company beat earnings this morning, and are following peer The New York Times Company higher -- up 10.3% as of noon EDT. Heading into the second quarter, analysts had forecast that Gannett would lose as much as $0.36 per share this quarter on sales of only $791 million. In fact, Gannet reported $804.3 million in revenue -- and $0.10 per share in profit. Image source: Getty Images. So what As we saw with The New York Times earlier in the week, sales of digital newspaper subscriptions were key to Gannett's success. While total revenue at Gannett grew less than 5% year over year, digital-only subscriber numbers grew 41% year over year to 1.4 million, leading to a 33% increase in digital revenue, and flipping the company from a $3.32 per share loss a year ago to a $0.10 per share profit. Now what Management declined to give earnings guidance in its report. Still, going forward, Gannett plans to lean heavily upon its new digital subscription model for USA Today subscribers, and that seems like the right plan. It's helped turn the company profitable already, and helped the company produce $23.1 million in free cash flow as well -- quite a turnaround relative to the $44.2 million in cash Gannett burned in last year's Q2. No wonder investors are pleased. 10 stocks we like better than New Media Investment GroupWhen our award-winning analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* They just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now… and New Media Investment Group wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of June 7, 2021 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends The New York Times and recommends the following options: short October 2021 $46 calls on The New York Times. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source