• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, April 8, 2013

Newspaper advertising revenues have been dropping steadily for some years now, and the end of 2012 brought no respite for publishers. Total ad revenues (including print and online) fell 8.5% from $6.83 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 to $6.26 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the latest figures from the Newspaper Association of America.
 
Over the same period, total print revenues tumbled 10.8% from $5.93 billion to $4.36 billion. Online ad revenues increased 6.9% from $906 million to $968 million. This marked the 26th straight quarter of year-over-year declines for total advertising revenues.
 
For the full year, total ad revenues -- including niche publications, direct marketing and nondaily publication advertising -- fell 6.5% from $27.1 billion in 2011 to $25.3 billion in 2012. Focusing on the combined Sunday and daily ad revenues, including both print and online, total revenues slipped 6.8% from $23.9 billion to $22.3 billion. The latter figure is just 45% of peak newspaper revenues of $49.4 billion in 2005, equaling a 55% decline in seven years.
 
As in previous reports, newspaper advertising revenues declined across all the major categories in 2012, with classifieds down 8% to $4.63 billion, retail down 7.6% to $10.98 billion and national down 11.7% to $3.34 billion. In the fourth quarter, classifieds fell 8.9% to $1.31 billion, retail 10% to $3.1 billion, and national 16.2% to $875 million.
 
In the fourth quarter of 2012, online advertising contributed 15.5% of total newspaper advertising revenues, up from a 13.3% share in the fourth quarter of 2011.

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