Newspapers ad sales dropped 28.3% in the first three months of 2009, down $2.6 billion from the prior year, according to statistics posted on the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) website.
Print ad sales fell by an unprecedented 29.7% to $5.9 billion in the first period of this year, and online sales fell a record 13.4% to $696.3 million.
The worst hit was employment classified advertising (down 42.3% to less than $1.5 billion in sales), followed by real estate (down 45.6%) and automotive classifieds (down 43.4%).
Newspapers sold a record $49.4 billion in advertising as recently as 2005, but showed signs of slowing down around April 2006. Newspaper ad sales last year fell 16.6% to $37.8 billion - the worst 12 months in the history of the industry. And this year’s first quarter $2.6 billion sales decline is equal to almost a third of the $7.5 billion that newspaper ad revenues fell in all of 2008.
The first quarter sales performance suggests the industry could be headed to its first year since 1987, when there were less than $30 billion in annual sales.
Figures, by category:
- Employment classified advertising: down 67.4% to $205.4 million
- Real estate classified advertising: down 45.6% to $336.9 million
- Automotive classified advertising: down 43.4% to $332.8 million
- National advertising: down 25.9% to $1.1 billion
- Retail advertising: down 23.7% to $3.3 billion
- Other classified advertising: down 16.5% to $587.7 million
A recent study found that nearly half (49%) of global online adults used online classified ads at some point in 2008 - compared to 2005, when 22% of online adults had used them.
