• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, September 4, 2007

File this under bad news. On Friday, the Newspaper Association of America released quarterly revenue totals for the industry, which reported an 8.6% decline in overall advertising revenue to $11.3 billion. Online revenues were a bright spot, posting 19.3% growth for a total $796 million. But it couldn't offset a 10.2% decline in print ad revenue, to $10.5 billion.

As expected, the main blows fell in classifieds, which sank 16.4% compared to the same quarter in 2006. Every major newspaper company has reported declines in classified revenue--traditionally a mainstay of the newspaper business, accounting for about one-third of total revenues.

Real-estate listings especially have suffered from the downturn in the housing market and the ongoing sub-prime mortgage meltdown. However, automobile and job recruitment classifieds are also migrating to the Web at a quickening pace.

Overall, real estate classified revenue fell 20.7%, to $966.8 million; automotive classifieds fell 19.3%, to $756.2 million; and job recruitment fell 18.5%, to $995.4 million.

Increasingly, the financial blow has extended from classifieds to national and local advertising, which both include a large retail component. National fell 7.9%, to $1.8 billion, while retail slipped 6.4% to $5.2 billion.

The NAA pointed to strong online growth of 19.3%, but online revenues still only represent 7% of total newspaper revenues, up slightly from 5.4% in 2006. It's worth noting that this percentage increase is partly due to the decrease in overall volume.

However, the rate of online growth in slowing significantly compared to last year's average of about 31.5%. The slowdown translates into smaller additions in real dollar amounts. In the second quarter of 2007, online added $128 million, versus $166 million in the second quarter of 2006.