NEWS
Community Newspapers Report 4th Quarter Results; Continue to Outperform Industry
For more information, contact Nancy Lane, SNA President, at
nancy.lane@suburban-news.org or (843) 390-1531.
3/3/2009 — Community newspapers were impacted by the challenging economy but in a much smaller
way than the industry in general, according to fourth quarter 2008 financial data
collected by the trade associations Suburban Newspapers of America (SNA) and National
Newspaper Association (NNA). The SNA/NNA fourth quarter financial reporting group
reports total advertising revenue at $428.7 million, a 6.6% decline from the same
quarter in 2007. As a point of comparison, Glennco Consulting Group estimates an
overall industry decline in fourth quarter advertising expenditures of 21% and many
large companies have reported declines in excess of 20%.
Hundreds of daily and weekly community newspapers, representing more than 13.35
million in circulation with annual revenues of nearly $2 billion, participated in
the SNA/NNA financial reporting group for the fourth quarter. Reports conducted
earlier this year by SNA showed a 2.7% decline for the first quarter of 2008 against
the same quarter of 2007; a decline of 2.4% for the second quarter and a decline
of 1.7% for the third quarter. Again, significantly better results than the overall
industry declines reported by the Newspaper Association of America of 12.85%, 15.11%
and 18.11% respectively. Based on four quarters of figures from the SNA reporting
groups, for full year 2008, the overall decline is estimated at 3.6% for community
papers versus double digit decreases for the industry in general.
As these results from the SNA financial reports would indicate, community newspapers
are not experiencing the massive ad revenue declines that are being felt by some
others in the industry. In addition, they are not reducing staff in significant
ways. In fact, only half of the reporting companies had staff reductions in 2008,
almost entirely through attrition. Indeed, with a focus on growth strategies, 26%
of the reporting group launched new products in 2008.
"The declines in 2008 are clearly economy-driven," said SNA President Nancy Lane.
"Community papers are affected by the current economic downturn but they are not
in a crisis; they are not experiencing massive layoffs and they are investing in
the future."
Once again, the variance explanations are economy-driven. Community newspapers are
experiencing small 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 advertising buys in the last few years
to increase their penetration in key markets.
Suburban Newspapers of America is a trade association representing over 2,000 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, is off to a great start in 2009 with advertising schedules from Exxon,
US Airways, New York Life and others, representing all new national business for
the community newspaper industry. For more information, visit www.suburban-news.org, www.snalocalpapers.com and www.localpointmedia.com.
Established in 1885, the National Newspaper Association is the voice of America's
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,
visit www.nna.org.
Note about the reports: 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.