I read today that newspaper ad sales are continuing their long, sad decline, down 7.4 percent in the third quarter. The shift to online is not going to save the industry. (And neither is the Kindle, says Techcrunch).
While online ads keep growing … 21 percent to $773 million industrywide, it is not enough to make up for the decline in print ads. Print in the third quarter was $10.1 billion. That is $1 billion less than it was in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, online newspaper ad sales rose only by $135 million. After six straight quarters of decline, print ad sales are at 1997 levels—lower if you adjust for inflation.
