Newspaper Online Ad Revenues Lag Far Behind Online as a Whole

(MoneyWatch)  OK, we all know the newspaper business is really bad right now, in some cases terminally bad, but just how bad is it? With the release of its fourth quarter 2008 ad revenue numbers yesterday, the Newspaper Advertising Association has quantified it, and it's baaaaaad. Overall ad revenue is down 19.74 percent, with print declining by 20.59 percent, and online by 8.1 percent.

The most distressing part of these numbers, to me, isn't the drop in print advertising. Seeing huge drops in print revenue has been in the cards for years now; it may be sad to see that revenue stream die off, but it's only the fulfillment of the inevitable. But the drop in online, which was, allegedly, supposedly, going to pick up slack from print is alarming. The last time there was an increase in online ad revenue was the first quarter of last year, when it rose by 7.2 percent; it dropped by 2.4 percent In the second quarter and three percent in the third (all numbers are year-on-year comparisons). By contrast, the Interactive Advertising Bureau's figures for the entire online universe showed increases of 18.2 percent, 12.8 percent and 11 percent in the first through third quarters of last year. The IAB is announcing its full-year 2008 numbers on Monday -- even if there's a decline, you can bet that the newspaper industry's 8.1 percent decline will outpace it, and that's a tragedy.