USA Today owner Gannett taps Palantir to mine reader data for revenue

USA Today owner Gannett is partnering with Palantir to analyze reader and customer data for new revenue opportunities, CEO Mike Reed disclosed on the publisher’s second-quarter 2026 earnings call on Aug. 6.

The goal is to predict revenue-generating moves such as targeted advertising and subscription pricing, using Palantir’s AI software. “What may take us a considerable amount of time to build internally, we can do in a matter of weeks or months with Palantir,” Reed said.

The deal comes as Gannett’s search-driven traffic slides. USA Today Co. reported roughly 158 million average monthly unique visitors in the second quarter of 2026, down from about 180 million in the first quarter.

A company spokesperson, Lark-Marie Anton, said Gannett keeps ownership of its data and intellectual property, describing the project as building “a unified intelligence layer.” Deal value and duration were not disclosed, and Reed said he hopes to share financial projections in coming quarters.

Gannett follows other publishers that already use Palantir’s tools, including Fox News and Axel Springer, the owner of Politico and Business Insider.

The tie-up is a sign that news publishers, squeezed as AI-driven search cuts into referral traffic, are turning to data analytics to wring more value from the audiences they still have.