From Reflections of a Newsosaur:

In the worst quarter in modern history for American newspapers, advertising sales fell by an unprecedented 28.3% in the first three months of 2009, plunging sales by more than $2.6 billion from the prior year.

Statistics posted without publicity on the website of the Newspaper Association of America show that print ad sales fell by a historic 29.7% to $5.9 billion in the first period of this year and that online sales fell a record 13.4% to $696.3 million.

The worst percentage decline was in the highly profitable classified advertising category, which dived 42.3% to produce slightly less than $1.5 billion in sales.

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More on the disastrous state of newspapers:

The real reason newspapers are failing

Newspaper circulation plunges record amount

Murdoch: Newspapers must charge for web content