Newspaper Ad Forecast: 'Long Way From Extinction'

Print publications will serve 'distilled' upper-crust audience, analysts predict

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 7, 2009 5:05 PM CDT

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Newspaper Ad Forecast: 'Long Way From Extinction' — A worker cleans the front window of the Boston Globe headquarters in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Monday July 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

For the newspaper industry, finally a bit of good news: Ad revenue is projected to end its long slide and actually increase 2.4% in 2010, says a forecast from Borrell Associates. Modest year-by-year increases are expected to continue through at least 2014, reports Advertising Age. Borrell’s analysis does not dispute the sea changes in the industry, but contends that print newspapers will cater to niche markets of well-educated, well-to-do readers.

"We are forecasting that by 2014, newspaper income will be up a total of 8.7% over the 2009 figures, to slightly more than $39 billion," says Borrell’s president. “That will be short of its 2008 level, but a long way from extinction, and good enough to increase newspapers' share of total ad revenue .. from 14.4% to 15.9%."
(More newspaper stories.)

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