The New York Times is out this afternoon with its October 2008 advertising figures and the numbers are anything but pretty. Advertising in their news media group plunged 17.2% over the same month last year. Internet revenues rose 5.3% but were tempered by “continued weakness in online recruitment advertising.”
Classified advertising was especially hard hit, dropping 34.7%. This category was led in its nosedive by help wanted ads which were cut nearly in half (46.5 percent). Real estate and automotive were not much better at -33.8% and -35.5% respectively.
One small bright spot for the New York Times was circulation revenue, which actually climbed a modest 3.4% over last October. About.com and related web properties also contributed 3.4% higher ad revenues “as growth in cost-per-click advertising offset declines in display advertising.”
(see more figures in the NY Times press release)
