• paidContent, Friday, August 5, 2011 12:51 PM

In a troubling sign for news publishers, The Washington Post on Friday reported losing ground in the normally reliable area of online advertising. "While print advertising declines are a given for most major newspaper publishers these days, the online side of the business has still tended to be positive for most," writes paidContent. "Not so at the Washington Post."

Indeed, WaPo said display dollars were down 16% in the second quarter, and 4% during the first six months of the year. "The results for online classifieds were mixed so far, though the numbers were too small to make much of a difference in WaPo's publishing fortunes either way."

Worses till, total online revenues, including washingtonpost.com and Slate, decreased 13% to $23.4 million. In particular, newspaper online revenues declined 3% to $49.1 million for the first six months of 2011. Overall, the newspaper publishing division saw a 6% drop in revenue to $162.8 million in the second quarter. Print ad dollars declined 12% to $66.6 million. Added paidContent: "The problems were largely due to less spending across the paper's classified, zoned and general advertising."

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