Advertising expenditures for US newspaper web sites increased by 35% to $745.5 million in the fourth quarter versus the same period a year ago, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).
The increase reflects the eleventh consecutive quarter of double digit growth for online newspaper advertising since NAA started reporting online ad spending in 2004.
Ad spending on newspaper web sites grew 31.5% for the full year, reaching a new high of nearly $2.7 billion. Spending on newspaper web sites accounted for 5.4% of all newspaper ad spending in 2006.
John F. Sturm, NAA President and CEO, said: “Newspapers are successfully monetising their online properties by growing their audiences and building brand loyalty on the Web.
“Advertisers recognize this multi-platform connection and value newspapers’ leadership role in online innovation. The latest data show that on average, spending on newspaper web sites accounted for 5.4% of all newspaper ad spending.
“We expect this upward trend to continue as publishers continue to capture a large and growing audience on the web, and find these sources of revenues contributing more to the bottom line.”
Advertising expenditures at newspapers and their web sites totaled $14 billion for the fourth quarter of 2006, a 2.2% decrease from the same period a year earlier. Spending for print ads in newspapers totaled $13.2 billion, down 3.7% versus the same period a year earlier.
For the full year, ad spending in printed weekday and Sunday newspapers and online was flat at $49.3 billion from $49.4 billion.
Print retail dipped 0.3%, totaling $22.1 billion versus $22.2 billion in 2005. National dipped 5.1% to $7.5 billion. Classified ad spending in print fell 1.9% to $17 billion.
Within the classified category, real estate increased significantly, up 11 percent to $5.2 billion. Automotive fell 12.8 percent to $4 billion. Recruitment was down 7.5% to $4.7 billion. All other classifieds rose 4.5% to $3.1 billion.
Among the major print components in the fourth quarter, classified advertising fell 7.1% to $4.9 billion. Retail declined 0.9% to $6.3 billion and national was down 3.8%, coming in at $2.1 billion.
Within the classified print category in the fourth quarter, real estate advertising fell 2.3% to $1.5 billion. Recruitment dropped 13.7% to $1.3 billion. Automotive was down 11% to $1.2 billion. All other classifieds were up 0.9% to $963 million.
A recent report from Outsell showed that US news users are increasingly turning to the internet for news (see US News Users Turning To Online).
At the start of the month, Nielsen//NetRatings revealed that traffic to the blog pages of the top 10 online newspapers in the US grew 210% year over year in December (see Online Traffic To US Newspaper Blog Pages Increases).
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