- SAN FRANCISCO: Newspaper advertising has sunk to a 25-year low as marketers shift their spending from print to the Internet.
The nearly $26 billion spent on newspaper ads last year is the lowest amount since 1985 when the total stood at $25 billion.
Adjusted for inflation, the 1985 volume would translate to about $49 billion today.
The 2010 figures were released by the Newspaper Association of America, the industry’s biggest trade group.
A four-year slump in print advertising has squeezed newspaper publishers because it has dramatically shrunk their main source of income. Newspapers brought in more than $47 billion from advertising in 2005.
The financial crunch has been gradually easing since 2009.
Newspaper advertising totaled $7.3 billion in last year’s final three months, down 4.7 percent from the prior year.