Newspapers got a double whammy in the second quarter. Continuing their downward trajectory, print revenues fell 16.1% compared with the second quarter, to $8.83 billion, according to the latest figures from the Newspaper Association of America. Print declines are nothing new. But now online growth is starting to drop. It fell 2.4% in the second quarter compared with the year-earlier period, to $777 million. With double-digit growth earlier this decade, online revenue was the saving grace for falling print revenue among U.S. newspapers. But as MediaPost reported, most of the growth in online revenue was due to “up-sells” from print classified listings. And with print listings drying up, there’s less opportunity for online “up-sells.”
