Income from online advertising shrinks 12% for newspapers

In 2009, the income American newspapers had from advertisements on their sites, was 12% lower than the previous year. In 2008 they reported a decline in revenue too, but a much smaller one: 1,8%.

The Newspaper Association of America has published these figures. Offline, in print, the income from ads declined even faster. Hardest hit were classifieds. There, turnover shrunk by 38,1%. This decline is related to the enormous success of sites for classifieds such as Craigslist. Especially the sub categories real estate, motors and employment are suffering. In total, the print editions lost 28,6% of their advertising income.

Counting from the moment online ads were first included in statistics, last year scored worst. Offline and online together lost 27,7% in 2009, compared to 2008. That corresponds to lost income of 10 billion dollars.