Newspaper Advertising Is Up

Here’s something you rarely hear these days: It was a great quarter for newspaper advertising.

Yes, you read that correctly.

The long-struggling medium, which has seen ad revenue fall by half over the past decade as digital soared, recorded stellar gains during third quarter of this year, thanks to big increases in ad spending by two key categories.

In fact, a particularly strong September by newspapers even helped overall ad spending grow 6 percent last month, according to the latest report from Standard Media Index, which tracks ad spending on the part of 80 percent of U.S. agencies.Newspaper ad spending jumped 18 percent in September, and was up 16 percent for the quarter.