Stocks of two of America's largest publishers, the New York Times and Gannett Co Inc., managed to record substantial gains in New York trading post a Wells Fargo & Co. analyst shared that advertising sales were on the road to definite improvement, and subsequently increased ratings of both the publishers' shares.

Shares of The Times surged by 71 cents, or 6.4%, to trade at a new high of $11.74 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Gannett, based in McLean, Virginia, on the other hand, rose by 67 cents, or 4.7%, to a per share trading value of $15.08.

Wells Fargo analyst John Janedis improved rating of New York Times to "market perform", and Gannett was upgraded to "outperform". Both the publishers had previously been graded as "underperform".

"It appears as though the newspaper ad market is improving more quickly than we previously anticipated, particularly in December. Given current trends, we now expect approximately high single-digit decline in overall newspaper advertising in 2010", said Mr. Janedis.

The American newspaper industry has been the hardest hit during the recession, and this year, publishers have posted record falls in advertisement sales. But now it seems things might just improve for the sector, which is also preparing itself to go virtual.