According to TechCrunch, the Newspaper Association of America shows total industry advertising (both print and online) in the third quarter was $8.9 billion, down 18 percent from the year before. The online portion of that was $750 million, down 3 percent. So far in the first three quarters of 2008, the industry’s total advertising revenues have shrunk by $5 billion to $27.8 billion.
“Print advertising has been declining for ten straight quarters, but this marks only the second quarter that online advertising also went down. More concerning is that the overall rate of decline seems to be accelerating, a trend we noted in September.”
What’s amazing to me is to see that online ad sales have leveled off from the 30-percent per year gains to under 20 and falling. In my experience, this is more about the incompetence of newspaper online ad sales efforts once the low hanging fruit got picked clean.
Here is the percentage change in total newspaper advertising for the past five quarters:
3Q07: -7.4%
4Q07: -10.3%
1Q08: -12.85%
2Q08: -15.11%
3Q08: -18.11%
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Tribune files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch
Last update: 4:54 p.m. EST Dec. 8, 2008Comments: 24
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Tribune Co. said Monday that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure its nearly $12 billion debt load, one of the most dramatic steps yet to underscore the dire state of the newspaper industry.
The parent company of the Chicago Tribune, founded in 1847, said that its operations would continue during the restructuring, allowing it to keep running its newspapers, television stations and interactive properties, and that it currently has enough cash to fund them.
The Chicago Cubs franchise, including Wrigley Field, is not included in the Chapter 11 filing, Tribune added. The company will continue to look for ways to “monetize the Cubs and its related assets.”
Real-estate investor Sam Zell, who acquired Tribune last December, commented that “factors beyond our control have created a perfect storm — a precipitous decline in revenue and a tough economy coupled with a credit crisis that makes it extremely difficult to support our debt.”
The financing of Zell’s $8.2 billion transaction involved the creation of an employee stock program that incurred a significant amount of debt.