It has been a rough time for the newspaper industry in the US, with a series of layoffs against a backdrop of falling revenues. Consumers still read newspapers, but the rise of online news and opinion sites and blogs has given them additional reading choices.
One fresh indicator that print newspaper readers are shifting to news sites comes from the Readership Institute. Although two-thirds of Internet users surveyed in July 2008 said they still used print newspapers about as much as they did before they started visiting news sites, more than one-quarter said they were reading print less as a result, and that figure has grown during the past 5 years.
Advertisers spent about 7% less last year with newspapers, at the same time that Internet ad spending saw healthy growth, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus data released in March 2008.
The good news is that newspaper site ad revenues are growing along with other online ad spending, especially for local news sites. Local newspaper online ad revenues are predicted to reach $3.7 billion this year, according to eMarketer calculations based on Borrell Associates data.
The bad news is that this spending will not make up for print ad losses for some time, according to Lisa Phillips, senior analyst at eMarketer. Ms. Phillips noted that advertisers still pay more for print readers than for online readers.
"This is a transition that will take several years," she said. "Local advertisers are paying attention to the shift in reader behavior, but it will take a while for everyone to adjust."
Learn how different ad formats are performing online. Read eMarketer's US Online Advertising: Resilient in a Rough Economy report.