U.S. newspapers' print advertising sales dropped a record 14 percent in the first quarter of 2008, a result of dwindling real estate and job markets, and the migration of traditional print advertisers to the Internet. The decline is the industry's biggest fall since 1971.

According to Kip Cassino, research director at Borrell Associates, a media consulting firm in Williamsburg, Virginia, traditional print stalwarts real estate, recruitment, and automotive are abandoning newspapers for their own websites.

"This stuff isn't going to online intermediaries...It's going to companies that say, 'I can do my own advertising,'" Cassino said. "Newspapers' biggest competitors are their former advertisers."

But there may be a way for newspapers to reverse the tide of shrinking advertising, according to Alan Mutter of Newsosaur.blogspot.com.

Mutter says that run-of-paper (ROP) advertising - a system in which editors determine the placement of advertisements - is experiencing a revival among large national retailers. Such retailers have traditionally favored free-standing color inserts, but are considering switching to ROP ads, which present a cheaper, easier alternative.

"At a time of soaring fuel costs, it is vastly cheaper to email a digital image of an ad to a newspaper than to have paper reels shipped from a mill to a commercial printer and then have the finished product loaded on a second truck to be hauled to their final destination," Mutter writes.

Mutter says that ROP advertising is favorable to newspapers as well, "fetching a higher rate" while eliminating the "logistical nightmare" of distributing inserts.

As Mutter demonstrates, ROP advertising could be a winning scenario for both newspapers and advertisers.

Source: Bloomberg.com through EJC, Newsosaur.blogspot.com