From The Wall Street Journal 12-20 Full Story here

By RUSSELL ADAMS

This year, for the first time, advertisers will have spent more on Internet ads than on print newspaper ads, according to new estimates from eMarketer.

The digital-marketing research firm says U.S. spending on online ads will hit $25.8 billion, surpassing the $22.8 billion spent on print ads in newspapers.

The eclipse has been on the horizon for years as consumers have migrated en masse to the Internet, where there are many more options for news, and where newspaper publishers can't charge nearly as much for ads as they can in print. So even while the total audience for many newspapers has grown, they have been unable to stem revenue declines.

"It's something we've seen coming for a long time, but this is a tipping point," says Geoff Ramsey, the chief executive of eMarketer.

It isn't just that newspapers are facing fiercer competition from the Web. Recently released findings by Forrester Research show that U.S. consumers, on average, now spend as much time online as they do watching television. But they aren't spending less time in front of their TVs. What they are doing less of is listening to the radio and reading newspapers and magazines offline, Forrester says.

While total ad spending in the U.S. is expected to rise 3% this year to $168.5 billion, eMarketer estimates spending on print ads in newspapers will decline 8.2% in 2010, to be followed by a 6% decline in 2011.

The New York Times plans to eliminate another 100 newsroom jobs. Just a few years ago, according to this article in the New York Times, the newsroom had 1,330 employees, a number which is hard to imagine. 

Full story here

Here is the first few paragraphs of the story:

The New York Times plans to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs — about 8 percent of the total — by year’s end, offering buyouts to union and non-union employees, and resorting to layoffs if it cannot get enough people to leave voluntarily, the paper announced on Monday.

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

The program mirrors one carried out in the spring of 2008, when the paper erased 100 positions in its newsroom, though other jobs were created, so the net reduction was smaller. That round of cuts included some layoffs of journalists — about 15 to 20, though The Times would not disclose the actual figure — which was the first time in memory that had happened.

The paper has made much deeper reductions in other, non-newsroom departments, where layoffs have occurred several times. But the advertising drop that has pummeled the industry has forced cuts in the news operation as well. The newsroom already has lowered its budgets for freelancers and trimmed other expenses, and employees took a 5 percent pay cut for most of this year.

Nearly all papers in the metropolitan region have been cutting their news operations for years, and some have fewer than half as many people in their newsrooms as they did in 2000.

If you are a small publication or agency or advertiser it is worth noting that big companies often have the same issues you do, but their problems are a lot bigger. 

From Today's Wall Street Journal:

Omnicom Group Inc., one of the world's largest advertising companies, reported significant declines in revenue and profit for the third quarter, battered by a steep falloff in global ad spending.

Omnicom added that the market had improved and signaled that it would be looking at possible acquisitions in the industry. "Client spending, while significantly down from 2008, is showing signs of stability," Chief Executive John Wren said on a call with analysts.

The New York company, which owns ad agencies such as BBDO Worldwide and media-buying firms such as OMD, said third-quarter profit fell 23% to $165.6 million, or 53 cents a share, from $213.6 million, or 68 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter fell 14% to $2.84 billion, just shy of analysts' estimates.

Full story here.

...by creating a product fewer people want to buy. Newsprint consumption continues to fall:

As reported in Editor and Publisher: "Total newsprint consumption in the U.S. plummeted 27.1% year-over-year in August, exceeding the decline year-to-date low of 25.6%, according to data released by the Pulp and Paper Products Council (PPPC)."

Full Story from Marketing Charts here

"For the second quarter of 2009, total newspaper ad sales fell 29% to $6.8 billion, down from $9.6 billion last year, according to Q2 figures released by the Newspaper Association of America. 

As  evidence of the continued toll the recession is taking on the industry, online ad sales were significantly affected again this quarter, slipping 16% to $653 million. Online newspaper advertising declined 1.8% in all of 2008, but tumbled more than 13% in Q109.

Print Takes Hardest Hit

Total print advertising totaled $6.2 billion, a decline of 30% over the same period last year. Within the print category, national ads fell nearly 30%, while retail ads fell nearly 25%.

Classifieds ads took the biggest hit within the print category, falling a total of 40%. Job recruitment classifed ads declined 66%, the worst slide of any classified category. Automotive classifieds fell 43%, while real estate classifieds fell 46% for the quarter, the NAA said.

Newspaper ad losses have grown worse in each of the last 12 quarters, experiencing the worst declines in newspaper history, reports Media Buyer Planner.

For the first half, ad revenue fell 29%, to $13.4 billion. Ad revenue fell 28% in the first quarter.

The numbers, give perspective to what John Sturm, chief executive of the association, calls “a terrible stretch of bad road,” writes Mediaweek."

From Media Life Magazine:

Full-year 2009 spending will decline by 14.5 percent, from $189 billion to $161 billion, and that’s excluding the impact of political and Olympic advertising.

During first half alone, ad spending will be off 18 percent.

Though declines will lessen through 2010, with ad revenues declining by 2 percent, any real recovery is still years off. The global media agency predicts a mere 1.0 percent compound annual growth rate through 2014.

Full Story here.