• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, April 22, 2010

Thursday brought more (relatively) good news for the newspaper business, with reports of smaller percentage revenue declines at the New York Times Co. and McClatchy than in previous quarters.

NYTCO said the company's total revenues declined 3.2% to $587.9 million, while McClatchy reported an 8.2% drop to $335.6 million.

NYTCO's total advertising revenue fell 6.1% to $313 million in the first quarter of 2010, the smallest decline in years -- holding out hope that the period of steep declines has ended, and that a recovery may be in the offing.

As in previous quarters, print advertising declines led the way, with a 12.3% overall drop. This was partly offset by an 18% increase in digital advertising revenues, which grew to $80 million. (Revenues at the About.com group, which is counted separately, increased 29.3% to $34.7 million.) Circulation revenue also increased 3.5% to $237 million.

McClatchy's declines were slightly steeper than NYTCO's, but still noteworthy as an improvement over the last couple of years. Total advertising revenues fell 11.2% to $252.9 million, compared to a 20.5% drop in the fourth quarter of 2009 and a 28.1% drop the quarter before that.

Digital advertising revenues rose 2.2% in the first quarter to $46.8 million -- a relatively modest increase, but a welcome change from the depths of the 2009 downturn, when digital revenues joined the print collapse. Circulation revenues increased 1.7% to $69.7 million.

The newspaper industry could use some good news after the longest, steepest decline in ad revenues in U.S. history. After peaking at $49.3 billion in 2005, total newspaper ad revenues declined 44% to $27.6 billion in 2009, according to the latest figures from the Newspaper Association of America.