Online Newspaper Ads Gaining Ground on Print

new york times ^ | 6/6/06 | JULIE BOSMAN

[mathprof]

IN the matchup between the print and online versions of newspapers, signs of the Internet's ascendancy are growing stronger. As Colby Atwood, a newspaper analyst and a vice president at Borrell Associates, put it, "The tail is beginning to wag the dog."

According to estimates released on Friday by the Newspaper Association of America, newspaper print ad spending in the first three months of 2006 increased only 0.3 percent, to $10.5 billion, over the corresponding period last year. At the same time, spending for online advertising surged 35 percent.

"I think the handwriting is kind of on the wall that there is a large migration to the Web," Mr. Atwood said. "Increasing amounts of revenue and focus should be on the online properties. This is a transition that's taking place over several years here. It's not happening overnight, but it's definitely happening."

The numbers are still small compared with print: the first quarter of 2006 produced $613 million in online advertising, up from $454 million in the year-ago period. But it is the eighth consecutive quarter of growth for online ads, according to the association.

Analysts say the increases show that newspapers are learning how to harness the potential of online advertising as their print circulation has stumbled. Last month, the Audit Bureau of Circulations released figures showing that in the six-month period that ended in March, daily circulation of American newspapers dropped 2.5 percent, to 45.5 million, over the period a year ago.

"I think this industry is in for exceptional long-term growth from online revenue," said Jason E. Klein, the president and chief executive of the Newspaper National Network, a marketing partnership of advertisers and newspapers. Much of the current growth is coming in the technology and automotive categories, he said.

[mathprof]

dinosaur alert

[Grampa Dave]

More good news or an another spin of what we all know.

[Milhous]

Copy and paste from another thread:

Allow me to offer up anecdotal evidence of fishwrap's dwindling fortunes in classified advertising,

A high school recently invited me to talk to a class about careers in the computer industry. My regional fishwrap advertised the availability of one state government job while companies like monster.com and potential employers advertised a plethora of interesting jobs on their websites.

The fishwrap's government job, probably targeted to arrange the promotion of an existing employee, required years of specific experience that would automatically eliminate entry level candidates from consideration. OTOH monster.com and potential employers both offered entry level positions of more value to students searching for their first job.

A simple Inet search also returns superior data regarding real estate. You get paragraphs of detailed specs rather than a couple of cryptic fishwrap acronyms. You also typically get plenty of high quality JPEGs of the real estate offering versus a poor quality low resolution small black & white fishwrap facsimile at best.

[Liz]

Online newspapers----good idea except the way Pinch went about it. He staffed the NYT online division with some 250 computer experts.

250.

Musta cost the times hundreds of wasted millions.

Dads musta had a catasta-stroke.

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

Isn't that amazing. All that work of getting ads from terrorist groups didn't pan out like the sorry newspapers wanted them to. What a shame. Oh well. I guess the conclusion is, that it doesn't pay to be a turncoat/traitor...