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Weekly UpdatesOverall first-quarter ad spending dropped 14.2 percent when compared to the same period last year, researchers said last week, with newspaper ad revenue down 25-1/2 percent for the period.
TNS Media Intelligence, the New York City research firm, said that national newspapers saw a 28-1/2 percent decline in the quarter, local newspapers dropped 25.1 percent in the period, and Spanish-language newspaper ad revenue was off 21.6 percent.
The biggest spending decline came in national spot radio, which dropped 31.7 percent, with the least decline coming in free-standing inserts and national syndicated TV advertising, which were basically flat.
The research firm said that Internet display advertising gained 8.2 percent in the quarter; it doesn't provide Internet classified ad revenue figures.
But the Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based consulting firm Advanced Interactive Media Group LLC does track at least one Internet classified metric: the number of ads that run on Craigslist.org, the "free classifieds" site that's based in San Francisco.
The AIM Group -- which also publishes the Classified Intelligence newsletter -- said last week it believes that Craigslist will garner about $100 million in revenue in 2009, up 23 percent over 2008, pointing out that the company charges for only "a tiny percentage" of its ads, giving away most of them in 570 markets worldwide.
"Craigslist is a stunning business success story, especially since it's run more like a community service than a for-profit business," said Peter Zollman, founding principal of the AIM Group, which has been following Craigslist and its impact on the classified advertising industry since 2003. Zollman said Craigslist has been having "tremendous problems" lately because of negative publicity and legal battles "but its revenue keeps increasing at a remarkable pace."
Zollman also said the characterization that Craigslist has killed newspaper classifieds is "unfair and inaccurate" but I still like to think of Craig Newmark, the site's founder, as the guy I warned the newspaper business about back in the late 1990s: someone in a garage who would create a business that would hit them hard.
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