Newspaper Advertising Takes Big Fall...Dinosaur Media Death Watch

[Chief]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/business/media/14paper.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Published: June 14, 2008

Print advertising sales by American newspapers fell the most on record in the first quarter, tumbling 14 percent as the real estate and job markets shrank and business was lost to the Internet.

Advertisers spent $8.43 billion on newspaper ads in the first three months of 2008, according to the Newspaper Association of America, the eighth drop in a row. Real estate and recruitment ads each fell 35 percent.

Many of the industry’s biggest advertisers in real estate, automotive and employment are cutting spending and shifting advertising to their own Web sites, said Kip Cassino, research director at Borrell Associates, a consulting firm in Williamsburg, Va.

Newspapers’ Web sites are not picking up all of the slack. Newspaper-owned sites attracted $804 million in advertising during the quarter, the association said, up 7.2 percent from last year and the smallest gain since the industry group began reporting online sales growth in 2004.

**SCHNIPP**

Boy! Would I like to get a peek at a current set of you know who's latest financials...

;)

Developing...

[Waterbuffalo]

Because of the Joint Operating Agreeement, you could get a peak of the Seattle Times and PI's financials.. Do a little cross referencing and get a decent idea of the actually near Costs of the two major Pacific Northwest news outlets that operate in a more diversified and intense market than Portland's...

[Chief]

It's hard to say what they are actually doing down there because they are family owned, and I'm sure they float the paper to some extent. That said, there is only so much chash you can pour down a rat-hole before you start questioning how wise that decision is. The recent layoffs were a good indicator that all is not well, but they still manage to give Lou a weekly spot to scribble in...

mrgrn

[Waterbuffalo]

Yeah, Lou gets his weekly scribbling and ad space to promote his always debonair cut.

All of the news media at some point in their circulation time frame, go through business cycles and new editor ideas. Its no different than any other business or financial construction.

Though I do see from my reading of the JOA news up in Seattle, that it IS possible to keep the presses running at a "claimed" financial loss and finally settle it rather amicably to both sides if they want to. But this is reference to a different operating and competitive landscape than little old Vancouver and Portland media spot light.

How many eyeballs does most of the national metro newspapers average?