Media Watch

US newspapers hemorrhaging ad dollars, web joins print in decline

Legislators Launch Effort to Save Two Connecticut Papers

Seven Connecticut state legislators are spearheading an effort to save two Journal Register Co. dailies in the state from possibly closing, according to the Hartford Courant. The Courant reports the effort is aimed at keeping the New Britain Herald and the Bristol Press from potentially shutting down. "The all-Democratic delegations from Bristol and New Britain have written to state Economic Development Commissioner Joan McDonald to seek a meeting to discuss ways of saving the two newspapers,” the Courant, owned by Tribune Co., reported. “Faced with a huge advertising decline at papers nationwide and the slumping state and national economies, the Journal Register has announced it will close the papers soon after Christmas if a buyer is not found... E&P.

Online advertising follows print's steep decline
newspaper print ads down 19%, Web ads down 3%

America's newspapers online advertising sales fell 3 percent to $749.8 million in the third quarter from a year earlier, the second consecutive drop, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

Print-ad sales slid 19 percent, their steepest quarterly decline since the trade association began tracking industry data in 1971. The print and online declines combined to produce an 18 percent decrease in total third-quarter industry ad revenue, to $8.94 billion from $10.9 billion in 2007.

Newspaper web sales drop in last two quarters

Online ads had grown every quarter since the newspaper industry's membership group started measuring them in 2004, before dropping 2.4 percent in the second quarter this year. With the U.S. economy in recession, analysts including Citigroup Inc.'s Catriona Fallon have said total Internet ad growth will slow next year.

Newsprint incease adds to woes

Plummeting ad revenue, a record rise in newsprint costs and the migration of readers to the Internet have forced newspaper publishers to slash expenses and pages this year. Many local newspaper editors have been forced to reduce the number of pages used for local news content. GateHouse Media flagship weekly here, The Cape Codder, is now printing 16 or more less pages each edition. 

McClatchy newspapers has announced two rounds of 10 percent job cuts. The newspaper chain also cut its dividend, as have New York Times Co. (which owns the Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegaph), Media General Inc., GateHouse Media Inc. (which owns eight weeklies on Cape Cod and The Islands) and A.H. Belo Corp. which owns the Providence Journal, Rhode Island's largest daily newspaper.

Some publishers have also defaulted on debt payments, shrunk pages or eliminated print editions some days of the week.