Print editions of newspapers are still under fire – according to the Newspaper Association of America first quarter spending for print ads in newspapers was only $9.8 billion, down 6.4 percent versus the same period last year.

• Classified advertising fell 13.2 percent to $3.4 billion
• Retail declined 2.2 percent to $4.8 billion
• National was down 2.8 percent to $1.7 billion

Ad spend on newspaper web sites, on the other hand, increased by 22.3 percent to $750 million in the first quarter

NAA President and CEO, John F. Sturm, said “The percentage of ad spending generated by newspaper Web sites continues to grow as advertisers realize the value of (this) Web audience… consumers who have higher household incomes and shop online more frequently than other Internet users.”

The Media Relations Summit next week in DC has many session that will help you figure out how to make the most of this new landscape.  And bear in mind that your online media relations plan has to include bloggers, not only the newspaper websites.

See you there.  A likely place to find me is the Market Wire booth.