Newspaper Advertising Declining - Online AND Offline
By Anna Johnson on September 13th, 2008Print advertising expenditure in the U.S. declined by 16 percent in the second quarter of 2008, dropping to $8.8 billion. According to Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch, this marks the ninth consecutive quarter in which print revenues have declined, and at an-ever accelerating rate at that.
As a whole, the U.S. newspaper industry earned $1.7 billion LESS in print ad sales in the second quarter of 2008 than it earned in the second quarter of 2007. In terms of the first half of the year, the industry earned $3.1 billion less. In fact, revenue levels are down to 1995 levels.
To make matters worse, online newspaper ad sales were just $777 million in the second quarter, representing a decline of 2.4 percent compared with the year before.
TechCrunch points out that bundling print and online ad sales isn’t likely to be doing newspapers any favors. Advertisers used to buying bundles will typically drop the entire bundle when making budget cuts, rather than carve off print or online (as the case may be).
Actually, the bundling itself is surely another reason for lower revenues, since bundles typically involve a discount on the combined off-line and online offering.
