Uh Oh: Newspaper Digital Revenue Suffering, Too

More bad news for newspapers: Lee Enterprises (LEE), which owns 54 daily papers in 23 states, says that not only is traditional newspaper advertising down in Q2 (expected), but online advertising is down 9.1%, too. Lee's online business consists of 126 local Web sites corresponding to publications as big as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to very small like the Weekly Calistogan in St. Helena, Calif. It's a sign that as bad as print advertising has been, local papers aren't competing well for local online ad dollars, either.

Overall, Lee Enterprises' print and digital revenues fell 10% to $195.5 million in the quarter. Combined same-property classified ads dropped 26.5%. Net income was down 87.4% to $2.8 million in part due to charges based on the falling value of its assets.

Counterpoint: Digital was a bright spot in the NYT's dismal Q2 report filed yesterday: Overall Interenet revenues were up 12.8%, and Internet ads were up 18.3%.

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