U.S. newspaper industry sees slump in advertising revenue, circulation

U.S. newspaper advertising revenue decreased by almost 28 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter this year, highlighting the financial problems of the newspaper industry.

Print and online advertising revenue fell to 6.4 billion U.S. dollars from 8.9 billion U.S. dollars a year earlier, the Newspaper Association of America said Friday.

Meanwhile, average daily circulation of 379 U.S. daily newspapers dropped by 10.62 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter.

The association said the decline is attributed to the economic downturn and rising competition from the Internet and free online classified sites such as Craigslist.

"There may not be great visibility into 2010 and beyond, but the broad consensus is that the worst has passed," the association said in a statement.

Source: Xinhua