… In the first three months of this year, print advertising sales by American newspapers charted their biggest drop since records began in 1971. And it was the eighth quarterly drop in a row.Advertisers spent $8.43bn on newspaper ads in the first three months of 2008, a 14 per cent decline on the same period last year, according to the Newspaper Association of America.The appalling state of the US economy is largely to blame this time around, as property and recruitment ads – the newspaper industry’s bread and butter – are surplus to requirements in a downturn. And then, of course, there is the internet. Or more precisely, there is Google. It is no secret that Google has turned the media industry on its head, with its aggressive online advertising strategy. Only last week the search engine company unveiled yet another innovative technological gizmo, called Goog, that allows would-be advertisers to target audiences more precisely.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/29/digitalmedia.pressandpublishing
Besieged US newspaper journalists face final deadline
In newsrooms across America scores of writers and editors are being laid off as publishers reel from the impact of the internet.