Another bad report about newspaper ad revenue: the Newspaper Association of America, a group that some accuse of spinning too positively for its industry, said this week that ad revenue hit its lowest level since 1986 after a drop of 27 percent in 2009.
But the $27.6 billion in 2009 revenue looks worse when you adjust for inflation, the Associated Press’ report says. The $27 billion earned in 1986 “would equal nearly $53 billion in today’s dollars.”
On the other hand, “ad revenue in the final three months of the year fell 24 percent from a year earlier to $7.7 billion — the smallest quarterly percentage decline of 2009.
“‘Unfavorable trends for newspaper ad spending continued to diminish as the fourth quarter progressed, a sign that business conditions have begun to gradually improve,’ NAA President and CEO John Sturm said in a statement.”