In a time where newspapers seem to be losing more and more revenue, figures from Gannett Co. Inc.'s fourth quarter released today, showed potential positive results for the months ahead.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Gannett swung to a profit in the fourth quarter following $5.6 billion in prior-year write-downs. Lower declines in advertising sales combined with much lower expenses helped the newspaper publisher show improvement.

Lower expenses seem to stem from Gannett's aggressive job cuts. In the summer of 2009, Gannett slashed over 1,000 jobs, adding to the 4,600 jobs cut in 2008. USA Today's newsroom was reduced by about 20% in only two years. Last December, Gannett executives remained pessimistic about the state of the company, citing a drop in travel and a decrease in circulation as the two biggest problems.

However, Gannett's executives are much more hopeful now. E&P reports that Gannet's President and COO, Martore, said that the company's publishing division's executives believe Q1 may exceed their projections by a couple of percentage points.

"We are very excited by what we are seeing," CEO Craig Dubow said during a call to the E&P. "But we are going to be cautious."

Gannett is the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. in terms of daily circulation. The company publishes 84 daily newspapers, including USA Today, and nearly 850 non-daily publications. The publisher also operates 17 daily newspapers as well as over 200 weekly newspapers, magazines, and trade publications in the U.K., among others. The company's holdings also include news Internet sites and television stations, according to its website.

The publisher's positive results shed a ray of hope that there might be a brighter future around the corner for the newspaper and with good news come big plans for the New York-based company. Gannett plans to use its newly acquired cash to pay down debt, but it is also thinking of acquisitions that will cross the entire company. With $755 million of its debt paid down this year, the publisher is in a position to make such a move.

Circulation - an area that suffered a sudden drop in late 2009 - too could exceed the expectations of Gannett's management. The company increased circulation by spending additional funds on important days, like Sundays. Gannett is seeing Sunday circulation numbers that are above 2008 levels.