• by Erik Sass , June 12, 2017

The first quarter of 2017 brought no relief from long-term trends for newspaper and magazine publishers. Total revenues continued to decrease, reflecting the ongoing decline in their legacy print advertising business.

If there was any good news in the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, it was relative, as the percentage decline appeared to be smaller than in previous quarters.

Overall revenues for newspaper publishers fell 3.8% from $6.08 billion in the first quarter of 2016 to $5.85 billion in the first quarter of 2017, according to the Census data.

Magazine publishers experienced a smaller drop of 0.3%, from $6.34 billion to $6.33 billion, over the same period.

The quarterly Census report doesn’t break down print and digital advertising numbers, or provide separate figures for ads versus circulation. However, judging by the results of several publicly traded publishers, it is safe to assume the latest declines are due mostly to print ad losses, which more than offset any gains from digital ads and subscription sales.

For example, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, Gannett Co., previously revealed that digital ad revenues rose 3.7% as print ads tumbled 17.7% in the first quarter, while total circ revenues fell 8% when recent acquisitions are taken into account.

Similarly, Time Inc., the biggest magazine publisher, reported an 8% drop in ads and an 11% drop in circ, when adjusted for currency fluctuations. 

As noted, the first-quarter declines are less severe than previous years. Total newspaper revenues fell 4.4% and magazines fell 3.2% during the full year 2016, also according to the Census Bureau, and in 2015 they experienced drops of 3.8% and 3.7%, respectively.

Taking a somewhat longer view, from 2010-2016 newspaper revenues slid from $35.2 billion to $25.4 billion, for a 27.8% drop over six years. Magazines fell from $38.4 billion to $27.4 billion, for a 28.6% drop over the same period.