Thursday, August 27, 2009

Newspaper advertising falls 29% in 2nd quarter

I thought we already knew this, but the Newspaper Association of America announced today that newspaper ad sales dropped by 29% in the 2nd quarter.

Newspapers' financial woes worsened in the second quarter as advertising sales shrank by 29 percent, leaving publishers with $2.8 billion less revenue than they had at the same time last year.

It's the deepest downturn yet during a three-year free fall in advertising revenue — newspapers' main source of income. The magnitude of the industry's advertising losses have intensified in each of the last 12 quarters.

The numbers released Thursday by the Newspaper Association of America weren't a shock, given the dramatic erosion mirrored the advertising losses that the largest U.S. newspaper publishers already had reported for the April-June period.

Still, the statistics served as a stark reminder of the crisis facing newspapers as they try to cope with a brutal recession and advertising trends that have shifted more marketing dollars to the Internet.


The deepest downturn yet during a three-year newspaper ad revenue free fall... brace yourself for more cost cuts.

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look out for this year's 4th quarter. It will be a complete disaster for newspapers, which rely on holiday ad spending. I'd be prepared for a layoff if you're one of those numbskulls who still works for McClatchy.

Anonymous said...

3rd quarter sucks too and we backloaded the hell out the 4th quarter hoping for a miracle. We will miss budget by double digits.

Anonymous said...

McClatchy cut costs to try to keep up with the decline in ad revenue. While ad revenue will keep moving to lower cost/more effective outlets, we have not yet seen the loss of ad revenue that will come from the next round of announcements of declines in circulation.
McClatchy is on a collision course with a perfect storm. Poor ad revenue, declines in product quality and accelerated decline in circulation.
Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

Anonymous said...

Maybe this will help reporters stop the "put on a happy face" reporting about unemployment and economic woes. My home town paper ran a story on unemployment which included the tale of woe from an unemployed guy who was having a hard time making payments on his recreational boat.

Anonymous said...

I still want my August raise someone promised me on this blog

Anonymous said...

When is McClatchy going to realize that their advertisers have lost complete confidence in their form of media.

Anonymous said...

12:43 am: Yeah, you really have to feel for the jerk who can't make the payment on his boat! These are the types of entitlement idiots that are ripe for McClatchy stories. Instead of pity, they're now getting our disgust.

Anonymous said...

Circulation is plummeting at the Sac Bee. Lower circulation = lower pay from the Bee. Most of the Distributors are not making any money and they are letting people go.