• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, September 5, 2008

There was bad news and worse news for newspapers in the second-quarter figures from the Newspaper Association of America. As expected, print revenues continued their steep decline, falling 16.1% compared to the second quarter of 2007, to $8.83 billion. The new twist was the reversal of online growth, with revenues slipping 2.4% to $777 million. The online losses suggest that the deterioration will only accelerate in the second half of the year (see graph below).

The print collapse is nothing new, with this year's second-quarter figures compounding last year's 10.2% decline and a 0.3% decline in 2006. In fact, this is the ninth straight quarter to see print revenues decline, and the trend is obviously accelerating. Since the second quarter of 2006, total newspaper revenues have decreased by $2.76 billion, or 22%.

 

As in previous quarters, classified revenues led the losses, with real estate revenues plunging 36% to $619 million, recruitment 40% to $600 million and automotive 23% to $580 million. National and retail advertising are declining at a faster rate, too, falling 14% and 9.5% to $1.58 billion and $4.74 billion, respectively.

The new bad news is the decline in online revenues.

In the best of times, online never contributed more than 10% of most publishers' total revenues, but with double-digit growth, it was the sole bright spot in the middle years of the decade, holding the promise that interactive revenues might some day make up the losses on the print side.

Unfortunately, most of the growth in the online revenues was due to "up-sells" from print classified listings. As the volume of print listings declines at an ever-faster pace, that means there are fewer opportunities for online "up-sells."