NEWS
Community Papers Perform Well in 2008 Despite Challenging Economy
2008 REPORT CARD: Community Newspapers are Better Positioned to Weather Economic
Challenges
News Release
For more information, contact Nancy Lane, SNA President, at
nancy.lane@suburban-news.org or (843) 390-1531.
1/28/2009 — Overall, community newspapers performed well in 2008 despite the
challenging economy. Financial results for community newspapers were tracked quarterly
last year for the first time ever, in an attempt to measure this segment of the
industry. Suburban Newspapers of America coordinated the effort and the accounting
firm of Dennis, Gartland & Niergarth, collected the data and verified the results.
Community newspapers are not experiencing the massive ad revenue declines that are
being felt by some others in the industry nor are they experiencing massive layoffs.
Data collected in 2008 showed a 1.7% decline in advertising for the third quarter,
2.4% in the second quarter and 2.7% in the first quarter (all were measured against
the same reporting period from the prior year). Fourth quarter results will be available
in late February. These results compare to industry-wide double-digit declines of
18.1% (third quarter 2008), 15.1% (second quarter 2008) and 12.8% (first quarter
2008), as reported by Newspaper Association of America.
Hundreds of daily and weekly community newspapers, representing over 10.5 million
in circulation with annual revenues of nearly $2 billion, participated in the SNA
financial reporting group for the third quarter. The National Newspaper Association
teamed up with SNA starting with the third quarter reports and will continue to
be a partner in future quarters.
“Community newspapers are not in a crisis”, said Nancy Lane, President of SNA, “Certainly,
they are affected by the economic downturn just like every other industry, but they
have a bright and profitable future. No other medium is able to offer hyper-local
news and information, down to neighborhood levels. Local news is extremely valued
and as a result, advertisers are able to reach an engaged consumer.”
Community newspapers are experiencing slight declines in advertising revenue mainly
due to classified categories that have been hard hit by the slumping economy. In
many cases, they have made up much of those losses on the retail and preprint side.
Large retailers, for example, have added many community papers to their buy in the
last few years to increase their preprint penetration in key markets.
For complete quarterly report information, visit SNA’s Web site at
www.suburban-news.org.
Suburban Newspapers of America is a trade association representing nearly 2,400
daily and weekly newspapers in the United States and Canada. SNA has experienced
eight years of record growth — another indication of the strength of this
segment of the industry. LocalPoint Media, a new national network managed by SNA’s
for-profit subsidiary, placed $400,000 in 2008, representing all new national business
for the community newspaper industry. For more information,
www.suburban-news.org, www.snalocalpapers.com
and www.localpointmedia.com.
Established in 1885, the National Newspaper Association is the voice of America¹s
community newspapers and the oldest national newspaper association in the country.
NNA represents an industry that serves, informs, educates and entertains more than
60 million readers every week from Main Streets across the nation For more information,
www.nna.org.
Note about the third quarter report: financial data was tracked for all products
published except dailies over 100,000 (although most SNA and NNA members do not
publish papers in this size range). Due to the wide variety of reporting procedures,
only total advertising was tracked. Category variances were explained in open-ended
fields. The accounting firm of Dennis, Gartland & Niergarth handled the collection
of data and the verification process.