Negative Momentum: Newspaper Ad Revenues Gaining Downhill Speed (Even Online Is Declining)

Can it get any worse for the newspaper industry? The steep decline in print advertising just keeps getting steeper and, for the first time, even online ad sales have gone down. Don't look to online ad sales to save the industry. Online ads came to only $777 million in the second quarter, which was down 2.4 percent from the year before. That's marks the first decline ever in digital revenues. The practice if bundling print and online ad sales isn't helping in this case, either. Advertisers trained to buy bundled ads are more likely to drop the entire bundle when making budget cuts.