• by Erik Sass , October 23, 2014

The newspaper industry’s dreary drumbeat of print advertising declines continued into the second half of the year, judging by some of the early reports of financial results by major publishers. In the latest round, the McClatchy Co. announced that total revenues decreased 3.3% from $287 million in the third quarter of 2013 to $277.6 million in the third quarter of 2014.

The drop was due to an 8.6% decline in ad revenues over the same period, from $191 million to $174.6 million. This drop was offset somewhat by an increase in circulation revenues, with rose from $85 million to $91.3 million, partly reflecting higher sales of digital subscription revenues.

In terms of specific advertising categories, retail advertising was down 9.8% from $93 million to $83.9 million, while national advertising fell 23.2% from $14.3 million to $11 million, and classifieds slipped 5.4% from $53.3 million to $50.4 million. Within the classifieds category, automotive was down 2%, real estate 11.1% and employment 9.9%.

It wasn’t all bad news, however, as McClatchy saw substantial increases in digital advertising revenues, with digital-only advertising up 5.4% when the company’s recently divested stake in Classified Ventures is excluded. Total digital revenues, increasing subscription sales, were up 9.1%.

McClatchy president and CEO Pat Talamantes noted that between digital advertising, direct marketing, and other “non-traditional” (meaning non-print newspaper advertising) revenues now make up 64% of the company’s total revenues.

Earlier this week, Gannett Co. announced that its total publishing segment revenues, including community newspapers and USA Today, slipped 3.6% in the third quarter, again reflecting lower print advertising revenues. However the company’s total revenues were up 15.2% to $1.44 billion due to higher broadcasting revenues following its acquisition of Belo Corp. Gannett is in the process of spinning off its newspapers to focus on its more profitable broadcast TV properties.