Newspaper Ad Revenues Plunge to ’83 Level

 

Newsmax

VERBATIM

The ad revenue collected by U.S. newspapers has dropped sharply ever since online news sites began rising to prominence, reaching the same level in real dollars that it had way back in 1983.

Total revenue for print newspapers stood at $20.6 billion in 2011, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Revenue stood at $2 billion in 1950 and rose steadily through the years, reaching $20.5 billion in 1983 and topping out at $48.6 billion in 2000.

But it has been on the decline since that time, when some papers began to offer online versions and web-only news sites gained in popularity.

The sharpest drops came in 2009 (down 28.6 percent) and 2008 (17.7 percent).

Classified advertising revenue in particular has taken a huge beating in recent years, dropping from $19.6 billion in 2000 to just $5 billion last year.

The situation is even worse for print newspapers when inflation is taken into account. The $2 billion in revenue earned in 1950 is equal to about $20 billion today, so revenue in inflation-adjusted dollars has now fallen back to 1950 levels.

Online revenue for newspapers, meanwhile, has risen from $1.2 billion in 2003, the first time figures were reported by the Association, to $3.2 billion in 2011.

Newspapers haven’t been able to compensate for the drop in total ad revenue by increasing revenue from circulation. That revenue stood at $9.98 billion last year, compared to $9.96 billion in 1996 and $10.2 billion in 2007.