US newspapers are failing to offset their declining print ad revenues with new digital sales, according to new data.
The study, from the Newspaper Association of America advertising statistics show $798 million in newspaper print losses for the first half of 2012. That is only slightly offset by a $32 million gain in digital.
According to a political blog Poynter, this data shows that for every $25 loss from the costly print model, US newspapers are making just $1 from digital ad sales. This makes the ratio of losses to gains is 25 to 1.
Poynter writes: “For the first half of this year, print ad losses slowed slightly to 8 percent, compared to 9.2 percent for all of 2011. But digital advertising was up, year-to-year, only 1 percent in the first quarter and 2.9 percent in the second.”
Newspapers have been experimenting with online paywalls, with some success in increasing circulation numbers, but whether this model can turnaround many newspaper fortunes remains to be seen.
The chairman of the NAA, Jim Moroney, recently said in an interview that the statistics provided by the NAA are completely accurate and provide important information on the results of digital advertisements, which are quite discouraging.
Many of the newspaper companies are now looking on different sources of revenue aside from just depending on revenue from digital advertisements.
Moroney has said, “For every good reason, the industry is still focused on print and digital advertising revenue. Now more are applying equal focus on print and digital circulation revenue.”
There are a number of different newspapers that are now increasing the cost of subscriptions for those who still prefer to receive their paper in print instead of having to go digital.
The statistics provided by the NAA also show that the industry is starting to move away from its heavy reliance on revenue that comes from advertising.
Several different newspapers have had success with offering different kinds of social media services to a bunch of business that are located in and around the area in which they operate.
View the NAA newspaper ad revenue data here
