Newspaper Ad Spending Slows in Q1

  • by May 23, 2001
The slowdown in newspaper advertising continued to worsen in April as major publishers reported revenue declines from ads.

Knight Ridder reported Tuesday that its advertising revenues slumped 8.6% in April compared with the same month a year ago, led by sharp declines in help wanted and general advertising.

Other major newspaper publishers have also reported advertising declines for April. Gannett Co., the largest publisher of newspapers, on Friday reported an 8% decline in advertising revenues compared with the same month a year ago.

The New York Times Co. had a 15% decline in ad revenues in April and Tribune Co., publisher of the Chicago Tribune, posted a 14% decline. Dow Jones & Co., which does not report monthly revenue figures, said that ad linage at The Wall Street Journal fell 37.2% in April.

And the Journal Register Company ad revenues for the five weeks ended May 6, 2001 were $27.7 million compared to $29.3 million for the five weeks ended April 30, 2000.

Overall, newspaper advertising expenditures for the first quarter of 2001 totaled $10.4 billion, a decrease of 4.3% over 2000, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America. It was the first such decline since the first quarter of 1992.

Retail advertising showed the smallest decline, down 0.4% to $4.6 billion. National advertising was off 3.7% to $1.75 billion, and classified advertising slid 8.6% to $4.0 billion.

"Obviously, it would be hard to match the incredible gains of last year, particularly in national, which registered an 18.7% gain in the first quarter alone," said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. "As is the case with other advertising-supported media, the slowing economy effected our business in the first quarter. From what we've seen, the slowdown in spending, while disappointing, isn't a big surprise."

Within the classified category in the first quarter, real estate showed a significant gain of 11.6% to $745 million, though other categories declined; recruitment advertising was down 16.9% to $1.7 billion, automotive declined 6% to $1.1 billion and all other classified decreased 7.9% to $512 million.

"We expect the overall economy to pick up in the second half of this year and that should improve the comparisons," said NAA VP/Market and Business Analysis Jim Conaghan. "The bright spot this past quarter was real-estate advertising, and that reflected the fundamentally strong housing market."

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