Newspaper revenue falls 29%, Online Falls 15%

Mashable has a great roundup of the latest numbers from the Newspaper Association of America. Overall Q2 revenue fell 29% year-over-year. What's most interesting is that online revenue, once thought to be the last hope for newspapers, fell more than 15%. Estimated 2009 revenue will have fallen almost 50% since 2005. The decline in revenue isn't surprising, but the speed of the free fall is, and the huge decline in online revenue certainly doesn't bode well for the future of newspapers. Mashable also offers 5 ways for newspapers to avoid extinction.

Here's a switch: publish to Twitter from Facebook

InsideFacebook reported yesterday that Facebook has just launched an application that allows business profiles and public figures to publish to Twitter. That's a switch - usually people post to Facebook from Twitter. And why not launch the application for all users? That could be the next logical move, and would certainly make Facebook the largest source of updates on Twitter.

This move, along with their semi-clandestine "Pay with Facebook" program, indicates an aggressive growth strategy in terms of both market share and revenue sources. It will be interesting to see how the Twitter/Facebook relationship plays out.

Rupert Murdoch wants to put up a paywall on all Fox Interactive sites

Funny...when Rupe first took over WSJ just after I left in 2007, he wanted to take down the pay wall, hoping to drive revenue from online advertising. I'm sure the 8-figure online subscription revenue is what changed his mind. Now he wants to put up pay walls on all of his news sites, thinking he'll be a trend-setter and that other news organizations will follow. This could be a big mistake. I've always maintained that WSJ has a niche B-B audience that is willing to pay for its unique content, not to mention advertisers that are willing to pay a premium CPM to get in front of its high-end audience. Let's not forget that most WSJ subscription fees are paid for by subscribers' employers.