Canada newspaper ad revenue slumped in 2015 -industry group

By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, May 13 (Reuters) - Business got even tougher for
Canada's newspaper industry last year, data showed on Friday,
with nationally distributed advertising cut by almost a quarter
and online ad sales barely taking up any of the slack.
Total daily-newspaper revenue in 2015 fell to C$1.4 billion
($1.1 billion), down 12.6 percent from a year earlier, according
to the data compiled by Newspapers Canada, an industry group
representing publishers.
The national portion fell 24.2 percent, to C$401 million,
with sales there now half where they stood in 2012.
Canadian newsrooms are shrinking in increasing numbers as
advertisers shift to digital alternatives including Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and
Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) search ads to reach younger and more tech-savvy
audiences.
Even if these advertisers pitch their products and services
next to Canadian newspaper articles online, the publishers
themselves are not collecting unless their news stories are
being read on their own sites.
The country's biggest newspaper publisher, Postmedia Network
Canada Corp PNCa.TO last month said it was looking to sell
assets or restructure its finances as its losses widened in "an
unrelentingly challenging environment".
Online ad revenue for the overall industry was C$228
million, barely higher than the C$226 million reported in 2014
and C$221 million in 2013.
Local advertising declines were much smaller than the
national shrinkage, and spending there has now overtaken
national spending as the biggest slice of the revenue pie for
the first time since 2009, the data showed.
Canada's federal Liberal government is prepared to overhaul
the country's laws governing broadcasting, media and cultural
industries to support local content, a minister told the Globe
and Mail newspaper last month.
($1 = 1.2934 Canadian dollars)