• by Erik Sass , October 4, 2011

The Wall Street Journal continues to stand out from an otherwise dismal newspaper industry. Managing Editor Robert Thomson said that print ad revenue jumped 24% in August compared to the same month last year. That puts WSJ well ahead of other major newspaper publishers; most are expected to post modest declines or remain even in the third quarter at best.

Thomson did not hesitate to draw attention to the contrast between WSJ and its competitors, noting that the increases came "while other national newspapers have reported distressing declines in advertising."

In late September, New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson told analysts that the company expected total advertising revenue to decrease about 8% in the third quarter to about $264 million, due to growing economic uncertainty, which results in advertisers "less frequently committing upfront."

That's roughly twice the decline originally forecast for the third quarter.

In a telling development, Robinson said NYTCO expects even digital ad revenues to drop, forecasting a decline of 2% to 3% in this area. Print ad revenues will probably decline about 10%, she said. The overall advertising situation (print and digital) could be even worse for other newspaper publishers, as NYTCO has usually fared better than its peers.

On Monday ZenithOptimedia released a negative forecast for the newspaper industry -- predicting annual ad revenue declines of 8.5%, 8% and 8% in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively.

Combining these predictions with print advertising data from the Newspaper Association of America, that implies that total print newspaper ad revenues will fall from $22.8 billion in 2010 to $20.9 billion in 2011, $19.2 billion in 2012, and $17.7 billion in 2013. That represents just 37% of the peak print ad revenue figure of $47.4 billion in 2005, also per the NAA.