Thursday, March 26, 2009

Uh oh... Newspaper ad sales slid $7.5 billion in 2008

Alan Mutter has more bad news for newspapers.
Newspaper advertising sales in 2008 fell by a record $7.5 billion, or 16.6%, according to yearend figures reported today by the Newspaper Association of America.

Print and online ad sales for the industry last year totaled $37.8 billion, as compared with a bit less than $45.4 billion in 2007.Sales declined at an accelerating pace in each quarter of 2008, tumbling nearly 20% in the last three months of the worst year in the history of the industry.

The industry has shed nearly $11.6 billion in sales since achieving its all-time peak of $49.4 billion in 2005. Thus, 23.2% of its revenue base was vaporized in just three years.

Sales fell in every revenue category in 2008, including online, which the industry had hoped would offset mounting losses in print sales.

Although online advertising gained 7% in the first three months of 2008, it fell in each successive quarter, tumbling 8.1% in the final period. Total online bookings for the year came to $3.1 billion, or 1.8% lower than the prior year.

For 2009, Alan predicts a further 17% drop.
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26 comments:

Anonymous said...

..I suppose any advertiser who continued to place ads in a newspaper that insulted large parts of it's readership by slanting it's news for ideological purposes is just stupid.

Anonymous said...

I suppose anyone who posts here and doesn't know the difference between it's and its (are you paying attention, Dave D.?) is just as stupid.

Anonymous said...

Just like all liberals, if you can’t refute a fact, nitpick some little comma, or something. Losers that get off on this junk instead of a rational discussion are doing the best they can with what they have. A red marking pencil is about all that is left to the poor teleprompter voter. Show some compassion for the mentally challenged, we don’t make fun these individuals here. We leave that to the Obama gaffe machine.

Anonymous said...

Dave D, I recently followed a live chat at Buss Machine with Jeff Jarvis. His guests was a highly regarded media expert. In the Q & A format, there were several small errors in spelling and its vs. it’s type punctuation. These typos are ignored in the new media rapid fire chats, and comments. There was no mention of that being stupid. Only an asshole here makes an issue when they can’t understand the subject. We just got another good look at a dinosaur in the death spiral. The upside is, these has-beens will never survive in the new media. Hold that thought as they drift away into oblivion.

Anonymous said...

You can tell a business owner you will not shop with them if they support a newspaper like the Sacbee. Think it doesn’t work? Think again. Business owners have to find another way to advertise anyway, so you might as well push the point now. I was looking for a car, and the salesman actually asked me what brought me into the dealership. I told him it wasn’t the Sacbee for sure, because if I saw his ad in that little Pravda, I would not be there at all. That bit of information was not lost on him. Make yourself heard, that is all it really takes.

Anonymous said...

I kant spel, but I no yu mother fathers is going bankrupt.

And I do love it so!

Anonymous said...

10:20 PM Please remember that as an example when you wonder why people really, really want to grab a few of you by your scrawny necks and kick the living dog shit out of you.

Anonymous said...

“…grab a few of you by your scrawny necks..”
---------
No way, I am not touching a liberal under any circumstances.
B Hussein O is spreading hoof-in-mouth disease. 'Are You Punch-Drunk?'

Anonymous said...

Saying advertising is going to slide even more this year is a fairly safe bet. A lot of companies went out of business at the start of the year, or scaled back their operations.

Circuit City alone going out has cost newspapers millions in advertising. With things showing no real sign of improving, who knows how many more will go out before the end of the year.

Anonymous said...

If newspaper revenues gained in the first half of this decade, peaking to an all time high in 2005, but circulation decline started in the 1980s; How does editorial ideology track to the revenue stream?

Even with readership fall-off, the major papers increased their advertising rates, year over year.

No need to worry about ideology -- just increase the ad rate, and lie about circulation. The old monopoly mentality in true form.

That worked until the advertisers finally abandoned newspapers because they now had choices created through technology.

The San Francisco Chronicle, the most liberal paper in THE most liberal city. That paper is dying even when playing exactly the tune the citizens like to hear. It never drove away 'half' of the readership, yet still will fold.

Mind you, I'm a Conservative, but dancing around that liberal press killed itself because 'half' the readership was driven away, just isn't true.

Modern publishers never really cared about what readers think, only about how they could lie to the advertisers, about how many readers they had, and how advertisers could not get their sales without the rate card rape.

That worked all the way through the housing bubble, but never again.

Anonymous said...

@ 6:36: Nice talk, moron.

For the record, I'm a conservative, I have plenty of problems with what newspapers do and yet I agree 100 percent with 10:20's post, which you ridiculed profanely. It's (correctly used) assholes like you who give liberals ammunition. Get some credibility first, then go in your attack-dog mode if you must. As it is, you're accomplishing nothing.

Anonymous said...

Saw a man standing at an intersection near here. He was wearing those gloves that don't have fingers and had tattered pants and an old army field jacket. He was holding a sign that read

"Will punctuate for food"

Anonymous said...

A liberal slant might not be a major cause of decline, but in my community, the paper continued to use the AP wire service, after many letters to the editor complaining of biased news reporting. He thumbed his nose at readers, and later turned out the lights and locked the door for good. I can only say why we, and a few friends dropped his paper. Once you recognize bias, you come to hate it, and we aren’t paying for it any longer. However, it was the AP news that was objectionable, not the local news reporting.

Anonymous said...

8:36 AM
Has a local blogger picked up the local news reporting? When we lost our newspaper it seemed a terrible blow until a talented person began an online blog. I see he has local ads on the side already. No loss of important local news what-so-ever in our little city.

Anonymous said...

You are right about local news online. I have links to school events, every public office, and even to the school board minutes. I have everything on one page now including phone numbers and email addresses. I embrace the new media, what a timesaver. Come to think of it, I have not used a phonebook in several months. Are they going away too I wonder?

Anonymous said...

Hey 6:36 are you really up for some ass kicking or are you one of those little shit-talking cowards? If your anywhere near Sacramento I'll meet you and we'll see what kind of man you are. I suspect your just like the other cowards on this site that spew out garbage from your basement in between being mean to people or molesting children. I'm sure that your equally disapointed that we have not nuked anyone yet....

Dave D. said...

..I'm not 6:36, but I'd be glad to clean your clock and reset your punctuation. Only 5 hours north of Sacramento. Bring somebody to drive you home and several copies of your paper because you'll need compression to stop the bleeding. When might I expect your brave corporeal form ?
..Dave Dudley, Siskiyou Co. I'm in the book and I don't hide behind "Anon".

Anonymous said...

How about reporting how much revenue in advertising was lost by all other forms of media? Even google laid off this year. TV is in the tank, DVR's are killing them, online has yet to prove any real profitability to adequately fund as it's too fragmented unless you're into pimping porn. Your bitter hatred of newspapers clouds any sense of reality. Online news has the credibility of the National Enquirer. The only real news is when it's stolen from creditable traditional media. But, just like this blog, and other BS on the web, any moron with a computer can spew whatever bias, rumor, or agenda they wish to self promote without fact checking, peer scrutiny, or fear of retribution. It's kind of like hate radio. I can sit for hours and present lies and half truths, and call it entertainment. Who cares as long as advertisers see my ratings, and I can get rich enough to send my housekeepers to supply my drug addiction.

Dave D. said...

.." I can sit for hours and present lies and half truths and call it ...."
..You already do that. And call it what you want...We call it " The Bee ".

Anonymous said...

..Dave Dudley, Siskiyou Co. I'm in the book and I don't hide behind "Anon".

Sorry it took me so long to respond tough-guy but I have a job and really don't have the time to campout on this blog and argue with retards like you. Not sure by your spelling if you were implying that I was part of corporate but for the record I work in production. It’s also obvious that you have a comprehension problem because I said “near Sacramento” and not 5 hours north. Pretty easy to tell me how badly you would beat me from that far away but it’s cool because I recognize the backwoods, ignorant form to your writing that certainly comes from some kind of inbreeding! So Dave, it’s nice that you’re so “brave” to put your name down for everyone to see and it’s equally nice that you even have a book much less one with your name in it. You deserve some kudos for partially joining the human race, I mean with the whole book thing and everything…

Unfortunately I cannot put my name down because as I said at the beginning of this, “I have a job”, and I would imagine that this would be frowned upon because of your obvious developmental disability. Should there ever come a time that you can put on some shoes and come in to the “big city” I would love to make your acquaintance and experience the violence you profess to be capable of. I would also be honored to show you how very wrong you are about kicking anyone’s ass, much less mine. Who knows, maybe you will learn something and lets face it, the trip to civilization will be good for you. You will get to experience all the things that make this a society like “humans” and I will help to educate you as to why mean-spirited, non-feeling animals like you are through making the rest of us “humans” ashamed for your presence among us. You should know up front that you will probably see persons of color so it would be wise to leave your hood and your khaki uniform at home. It would be a shame for you to not have the kind of experience that you so richly deserve.

I read this site a few times a day and I really look forward to reading that you’re coming to see us. If you can afford to spend the night here, that is if all the social programs for “humans” has not wiped you out, please be just as brave when posting as to where you will be staying. That way we can get together for some good times and the folks of Sacramento can experience your “country toughness”!!!!!

Dave D. said...

..Weasel words. Still hiding behind Anonymous. Talk's cheap, but you won't have a job much longer. Should you grow a pair, I'll still be here. But there's not much chance of that. You must have to shave with your eye's closed.

Anonymous said...

..Weasel words. Still hiding behind Anonymous.

This comes from someone making threats 5 hours away. Your a POS moron and if you ever get a pair or you can get permission to leave the facility, please come show me how tough you are. Idiot!

Dave D. said...

...Heh Heh, what a BONELESS WONDER you be, all bluster in type, but spineless to me. It was you who promised to kick ass, but when confronted, retreat like a cur, still hiding behind the Anon. curtain. You of the Alligator mouth and the Hummingbird ass.
..Even the Bee must give you days off. Drag your sorry self up north and teach me the intricacies of punctuation. I'll show you what a wood shampoo is, and you'll be the better boy for it. You can use sick leave until the swelling goes down, then make up some story of fictional prowess that people who know you won't believe.
..Until I know your real name, you'll be the BONELESS WONDER at the BEE.

Anonymous said...

No pin-head, I'll be the guy 5 hours away that you threaten because you know I'm 5 hours away. I'm sure you threaten others that are far away too because it’s easy knowing that it’s not worth the drive or time in jail to make your punk ass understand who your talking to. If however you can muster the courage to come to Sacramento, (as I mentioned in the original post that you opened your fat mouth about) then I’ll show you what a little punk bitch you are. Until then why don’t you just go back to being mean to people and molesting children you worthless piece of crap! For animals like you, your day is coming. As I told your stupid ass already, we humans are tired of your crap and soon you will either change or be forced to stay in the hills and live out your worthless pitiful life.

Since you’re so proud of the fact that you posted your name tough-guy, post your address and your phone number too. According to you, posting your name makes you the bigger man so posting the other information should be easy for big tough guy like yourself. And since I know already that you will never be man enough to come to Sac I’ll refer to you as the “Boneless Wonder of the Woods”!!!!

Anonymous said...

Sorry Dave but I have a life so I have to go now. I'll come back later and see what sort of creative comeback you have left for me.

Dave D. said...

..BONELESS. WONDER.