The bad news just keeps rolling in. Newsosaur Alan Mutter points today to the U.S. newspaper industry’s latest doomsday advertising numbers. (Click on “Quarterly” once you’re there).
Print advertising sales in newspapers brought in just $5.9 billion in the first quarter of 2009. That’s a 29.7 percent freefall from the same period in 2008, which wasn’t exactly a good year either. Newspapers’ online advertising didn’t even crack $700 million in the first three months of 2009 — a 13.4 percent drop. Total ad sales — print plus online — for newspapers was $6.6 billion. That’s 28.3 percent less than 2008′s first quarter. At this rate, newspapers would make less money selling ads in 2009 — in print plus online — than in any year since 1985. Print ad sales have now decreased in twelve straight quarters. Even ad sales on newspaper websites have fallen in four straight quarters. Not good, people.
Oh, and did I mention that the number of layoffs and buyouts at U.S. newspapers so far this year has just crossed the 10,000 mark? It’s a great day to be a journalist.
(Photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)