Q1 Newspaper Revs: Same Story…

Online is up, print is down. According to the NAA release:

Advertising expenditures for newspaper Web sites increased by 22.3 percent to $750 million in the first quarter versus the same period a year ago . . . Advertising on newspaper Web sites made up 7.1 percent of total newspaper ad spending in the first quarter compared with 5.5 percent for the same period a year ago.

Advertising expenditures at newspapers and their Web sites totaled $10.6 billion for the first quarter of 2007, a 4.8 percent decrease from the same period a year earlier. Spending for print ads in newspapers totaled $9.8 billion, down 6.4 percent versus the same period a year earlier.

Among the major print components in the first quarter, classified advertising fell 13.2 percent to $3.4 billion. Retail declined 2.2 percent to $4.8 billion and national was down 2.8 percent, coming in at $1.7 billion.

Within the classified print category in the first quarter, real estate advertising fell 14.2 percent to $953 million. Recruitment dropped 14.3 percent to $975.3 million. Automotive was down 20.1 percent to $751.3 million. All other classifieds were down 0.5 percent to $699.3 million.

(my emphasis)

These are double-digit declines in the major print classifieds categories. Leading indicators and media-buyer surveys indicate there’s more of the same in store for the next several quarters. We haven’t hit the bottom yet. Eventually there will be some stability, however.

Here’s MediaPost’s write up today (reg req’d). And here’s more data from the NAA for historical perspective.

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