NAA: Ad sales drop almost 30% in Q1

Print ad sales for the first quarter of 2009 fell almost 30 percent, the worst drop in modern history.
According to the Newspaper Association of America, newspapers posted $5.9 billion in print ad revenues, down 29.7 percent from the year-ago quarter. Online sales, meantime, fell 13.4 percent, to $696 million. Taken together, newspapers sold a total of $6.6 billion in overall advertising, a decrease of 28 percent.
In 2008, newspapers sold more than $9.2 billion in print and online advertising during the first three months of the year.
As expected, classified ad revenues continued their swift decline, falling during the first three months of 2009 by 42 percent, to $1.4 billion.
By segment, automotive classifieds fell 43 percent, to $322 million; and real estate fell 45 percent to $336 million. Recruitment classifieds declined a whopping 67 percent, to $205 million.