By: Jennifer Saba Community newspapers continue to weather the harsh economic downturn according to new advertising revenue data from Suburban Newspapers of America (SNA) and the National Newspaper Association.
The associations said in Q4 2008, ad revenue for their groups declined 6.6% to $428.7 million compared to the same quarter in the previous year. (Many metros, in contrast, easily hit double digit declines.) Newspapers representing a total of 13.3 million in circulation participated in the results.
"These declines in 2008 are clearly economy-driven," Nancy Lane, president of SNA, said in a statement. "Community papers are affected by the current economic downturn but they are not in a crisis; they are not experiencing massive layoffs and they are investing in the future."
The total decline in ad revenue for community papers is mostly due to a drop-off in classifieds, though retail and preprint advertising remained stronger, the associations said.
In Q3 of 2008, advertising revenue for community papers decreased 1.7%. In Q2 2008 it was down 2.4%. In the first quarter of 2008, where a smaller group of papers participated in the beta, advertising revenue dropped 2.7%.
The Newspaper Association of America, which tracks advertising revenue for the industry as whole, has yet to report Q4 numbers. However most public newspaper companies have announced double-digit declines for that quarter.
In Q3 of 2008, total advertising revenue fell 18.1% to $8.9 billion, according to the NAA.
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