Newspaper Web Sites Dominate Local Traditional Media, But Are Losing Share

Of all the traditional local media, newspapers capture the most local online advertising dollars. In 2007 newspapers netted 26.9%, or $2 billion of the $7.5 billion total local online ad spend, according to Borrell Associates on behalf of the Newspaper Association of America. Newspapers' slice of the online pie surpasses local yellow pages (9.5%), local television stations (9.5%), and radio (2.1%). But when it comes time to Internet pure-plays like Google and Yahoo, however, newspapers are losing ground. In 2007, Internet pure-plays claimed 49.7% of local online ad dollars. The study found that at the largest newspaper Web sites, more than half of the revenue was generated from new advertisers. Online-only advertisers accounted for 59% of the total ad revenue generated by those sites. This points to a trend that newspapers are growing less reliant on classified upsells to the Web.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...