Newspapers: The Final Days

(MoneyWatch)  TechCrunch has published the latest bad news for the newspaper industry. Here is its report:

The newspaper industry in the U.S. continues to shrink at an alarming rate. According to the Newspaper Association of America, total industry advertising (both print and online) in the third quarter was $8.9 billion, down 18 percent from the year before. The online portion of that was $750 million, down 3 percent. So far in the first three quarters of 2008, the industry's total advertising revenues have shrunk by $5 billion to $27.8 billion.

Print advertising has been declining for ten straight quarters, but this marks only the second quarter that online advertising also went down. More concerning is that the overall rate of decline seems to be accelerating. Here is the percentage change in total newspaper advertising for the past five quarters:

3Q07: -7.4%
4Q07: -10.3%
1Q08: -12.85%
2Q08: -15.11%
3Q08: -18.11%

The fourth quarter will probably be worse.

We, in the media industry, are living in a period of severely disorienting change. These figures indicate just how serious the situation is for newspapers nationwide. So, as the newsprint versions of these vital community resources disappear, which from an environmental perspective is not necessarily a bad thing, the main issue is how will new media companies fill the void?

Stay tuned.

(Note: Thanks to Brent Harrison for help with this post.)