NEW YORK (AP) — Gannett Co. posted a first-quarter loss as its costs rose, but it still beat Wall Street expectations as acquisitions drove revenue higher.

Shares of the Mclean, Virginia, company rose about 2 percent to $8.90 in premarket trading.

The company lost $2.1 million, or 2 cents per share, after reporting a profit a year earlier. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 14 cents per share.

Revenue for the newspaper jumped 17.3 percent to $773.5 million, better than the $762.7 million that analysts surveyed by Zacks expected.

The revenue boost came mainly from acquisitions, including Journal Media Group Inc., North Jersey Media Group and ReachLocal Inc. Revenue at the publishing segment rose 5.6 percent to $694.6 million while digital advertising revenue rose 8.3 percent to $94.6 million.

The acquisitions gains and digital advertising revenue helped offset lower print advertising and circulation demand.

Gannett Co., Inc. expects full-year revenue in the range of $3.15 billion to $3.22 billion.

Gannett Co., Inc. shares have dropped 10 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed 6 percent.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on GCI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/GCI