ACCESS Newswire (NYSEAMERICAN:ACCS) reported lower third-quarter revenue as press release volumes weakened, prompting the company to cut costs and introduce new products aimed at increasing subscription revenue.
Revenue fell 4% from a year earlier to $5.5 million and was down 2% from the second quarter. Founder and CEO Brian Balbirnie said the decline reflected a broader slowdown in press release volumes, although subscription offerings and newer analytics products helped offset the pressure.
ACCESS posted a net loss from continuing operations of $80,000, or $0.02 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was $829,000, or 15% of revenue, compared with approximately $900,000, or 16% of revenue, a year earlier. Cash flow from operations was $469,000.
Volume Declines Weigh on Revenue
CFO Steve Knerr said core press release volumes fell 12% from the second quarter and 15% from a year earlier. Balbirnie later gave the opposite comparison, saying volumes fell 12% year over year and 15% from the second quarter.
Knerr said revenue from PRO Plan customers and the company’s Social Monitoring and Insight & Analytics products partially offset the decline. Revenue from investor relations products was flat sequentially and rose slightly year over year, he said.
Gross margin was 75%, up from 73% in the second quarter. Knerr attributed the sequential improvement to distribution costs moving closer to prior-year levels as volumes fell. For the first nine months of 2026, revenue declined 2% to $16.5 million, while gross margin fell to 74% from 76% a year earlier.
The operating loss narrowed to $142,000 in the third quarter from $184,000 a year earlier. For the first nine months, the operating loss widened to $1.2 million from $1.1 million.
Restructuring and Subscription Plans
Balbirnie said ACCESS completed a restructuring in October that affected personnel across sales, development, editorial and operations. The company expects approximately $300,000 in savings in the fourth quarter and the full benefit of the $1.5 million cost-savings plan beginning in the first quarter of 2027.
Subscription revenue reached $3.2 million, or 60% of third-quarter revenue. ACCESS added 115 subscribers during the quarter and ended it with 1,213 subscribing customers. Average annual recurring revenue per subscribing customer, excluding EDU, rose 6% from a year earlier to $12,331.
Balbirnie said the company hopes to move closer to its restated goal of 1,300 to 1,350 subscribers by year-end. Across the business, ACCESS had 14,134 customers with an active contract during the preceding 12 months, up 14% year over year.
The company plans to introduce a small-business entry subscription starting at $249 a month. Balbirnie said it will include a release, one monitoring keyword, one newsroom, 10 journalist pitches and three SPOT agents each month. During the question-and-answer session, he clarified that the included release is a newsroom article.
ACCESS expects those subscribers to generate annual recurring revenue closer to $6,000 after add-ons. Balbirnie said that assumption includes roughly $3,000 in annual base fees and another $3,000 in purchases such as national press release distribution, targeted journalist outreach and additional monitoring.
AI Tools and Capital Allocation
ACCESS is also promoting SPOT, or Smart PR Optimized Tools, a suite of AI agents designed to review releases after they are written but before submission. Balbirnie said the company’s editorial teams will continue to review every press release.
Three agents are included with every release, while four others—including an earnings audit and headline optimizer—are available as add-ons. Balbirnie said the earnings audit can check figures and narratives in an earnings 8-K and that the company is exploring additional investor relations applications.
ACCESS ended the quarter with just under $3 million in cash. Balbirnie said the company had completed a $1 million share repurchase plan and intends to resume buying shares under another board-approved plan during the remainder of the year. He also said ACCESS expects to return to revenue growth in 2027.
About ACCESS Newswire (NYSEAMERICAN:ACCS)
ACCESS Newswire is a communications technology company that provides news distribution and media outreach services for public companies, private businesses, government organizations and other institutions. Its platform is designed to help clients distribute corporate announcements, press releases and multimedia content to journalists, news organizations, investors and other audiences. The company’s offerings include press release distribution, media targeting, online newsroom tools, multimedia content distribution and related corporate communications services.
