Slip in Local Advertising Share

A new study in the United States warns that online newspapers' share of local advertising is declining and is likely to continue to slip, according to a report in Editor & Publisher magazine. The reason is that the Internet is changing from a medium of banner advertising and pay-for-listings, formats that are familiar to newspapers and their existing advertisers, to one dominated by video adverts and paid search.

In addition, the 'pure-play' sites -- those not affiliated with traditional media -- are gaining local market share. Analysts suggest that newspaper companies teaming up with Google, Yahoo, Monster and others stand to gain. But in general, online newpapers' share of local advertising has decreased 8.2 percent over the past two years, even though the total amount spent on local online adverts is growing.

The study said successful newspaper sites typically had instituted higher online ad rates and employed online-only sales people who target non-traditional advertisers. In addition, the more successful sites tended to depend less on classifieds; the top performers received 62 percent of their online revenue from classifieds as opposed to 71 percent for the average newspaper Web site, according to the report.

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