I don't post too much about newspapers here, but they are a large (though shrinking) and important part of the local advertising ecosystem. I've argued for a while that, while yellow pages companies are in a tough position, newspapers are even worse off. Why is that? Because they face a lot more competition and on different factors compared to YPs. Any local blogger can cover local news (sometimes better than the big papers, especially when you're talking about a neighborhood or smaller area). They can go deeper on topics, have a better understanding of the day-to-day life in an area and, most importantly, they can be more timely with their news delivery. While newspapers publish once a day (and their online schedules are not that much more frequent), bloggers publish anytime. And via blog readers and other notification channels, interested people can know the news as soon as it happens. While this will impact other local players, like radio and TV, the biggest impact is in the newspaper industry. Yellow Pages obviously face significantly new media competition as well, but it's not as likely that one person in their house will provide the same competition for YPs that they provide for newspapers.
So what's the point of all this? According to the Newspaper Association of America (via Techcrunch), newspaper advertising revenues have been dropping off a cliff. Not only that, but their Internet revenues are decreasing as well. Most people I know think we're in a recession and advertising is bound to drop off as a whole. But it definitely looks like newspapers are taking the brunt of it (though the YPs are not exactly feeling good either). Classified ads, one of the big revenue areas for newspapers, have been eaten away for a while now, by Craigslist and vertical sites like Rent.com, Realtor.com, Monster.com and the like. But now it seems like display is following, and it's just going to keep going down from here.
Negative Momentum: Newspaper Ad Revenues Gaining Downhill Speed (Even Online Is Declining)
So what's the point of all this? According to the Newspaper Association of America (via Techcrunch), newspaper advertising revenues have been dropping off a cliff. Not only that, but their Internet revenues are decreasing as well. Most people I know think we're in a recession and advertising is bound to drop off as a whole. But it definitely looks like newspapers are taking the brunt of it (though the YPs are not exactly feeling good either). Classified ads, one of the big revenue areas for newspapers, have been eaten away for a while now, by Craigslist and vertical sites like Rent.com, Realtor.com, Monster.com and the like. But now it seems like display is following, and it's just going to keep going down from here.
Negative Momentum: Newspaper Ad Revenues Gaining Downhill Speed (Even Online Is Declining)
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