• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 15, 2012

The last quarter of 2011 brought no respite for the newspaper business, which saw another round of revenue declines as the year drew to a close. Total newspaper revenues sank 6.7% to $6.83 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the latest figures from the Newspaper Association of America.

Print ad revenues in the fourth quarter decreased 8.3% from $6.45 billion to $5.93 billion. Online revenues -- the only bright spot on the ledger -- edged up 3.1% from $878.4 million to $905.6 million.

For the full year, total newspaper ad revenues (including print and online) sank 7.3% to $23.9 billion in 2011. Total print revenues sank 9.2% from $22.8 billion to $20.7 billion. Online revenues increased 6.8%, from $3 billion in 2010 to $3.2 billion in 2011.

As in previous quarters, the fourth-quarter declines were spread evenly across all the major categories. National advertising fell 9.4% to $1.04 billion, retail slid 6% to $3.45 billion, and classifieds tumbled 11.6% to $1.44 billion. Within the classifieds category, automotive fell 11.9% to $303 million, real estate tumbled 19.4% to $229.1 million, and recruitment slipped 3.4% to $206.5 million.

The online growth rate in the fourth quarter, as well as the full year, are likely a good deal lower than the rate of growth for online advertising as a whole, which averaged 23% in the first three quarters of 2011, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. (Fourth-quarter results are not yet available.)

The Q4 revenue declines marks 22 straight quarters of year-over-year revenue declines for the newspaper industry. The latest full-year figure combining print and digital represents a 51.6% drop from peak revenues of $49.4 billion in 2005.