You are ABSOLUTELY dead-on. The quote is a load of bull SPECIFICALLY the supposed Real Estate ad downturn. Of all the advertisers whose knee-jerk reaction during a "downturn" is to cut ad spending, Real Estate agents and agencies actually crank up the adspending when things are not turning over as fast as they would like them to. Think about it....if the total market inventory is in surplus (compared to a few years ago)because properties are not moving as fast, Agents and agencies have more to show and NEED to get as much printspace as they can to compete and show all they are offering. The howler is that of ALL the professions save show business, Real Estate is more like a Personality Cult than any other single business sector. A third or MORE of the Real Estate ads feature JUST the Real Estate agents. These "Vanity" ads are on the Upswing! Granted, they do actually serve a purpose since more than a few prospective home sellers may be swayed by the Vanity ads when they choose a firm/person to represent them in their sale.
It is a TOTAL Newspaper adspace demand downturn you are seeing. Ad Buyers have had to get smarter (read "FRUGAL") in buying Newspaper adspace because instead of attracting more business by lowering page rates, the newspapers have RAISED rates to keep profits up. What sense does it make to be paying MORE to advertise in a medium that reaches less and less people?
To top that, they are claiming that due to the election cycle,they can't count on boosted revenue due to political ads? And this is something new? Really, now. The bulk of that money goes to TV anyway.