Newspaper Advertising Revenue Destroyed by Internet

Here’s a great chart from Dr Mark J Perry showing how newspaper advertising revenue has simply been destroyed in the last few years. According to the Newspaper Association of America, newspaper ad revenue grew steadily from 1950 to 2000 reaching an inflation adjusted max of about $64 billion. Since 2000, print ad revenue has taken a nosedive to $21 billion last year.

Why the drop in print ads? I think it’s simply that the Internet has changed the way people get their information and ad revenue has moved accordingly.

One business owner summed it up this way: “I get very little response out of advertising in a newspaper.”

Another commentor said: “The man to blame for this is Craig Newmark. Newspaper ad revenue fell off the cliff when Craigslist really hit its stride.”

While there may be other reasons, these 2 comments carry the majority of the answer.

First, if advertisers can get a much better return on investment elsewhere, they won’t spend money on newspaper ads. Second, if classified ads perform better on Craigslist for free, why pay the newspaper?

If you’re a small business owner, it makes more sense to invest in a good website and an effective Internet Marketing campaign than traditional print advertising.