Are you buying newspaper ads?

For the past six months or so, we have increased our usage of new media in advertising job openings.

We use our Constant Contact e-mails, Craigs List and our Twitter page to get the word out on job openings. We updated our Google information and constantly put new information on this blog so Ryan Staffing becomes more attractive on Google searches.

But are tactics like this responsible for the demise of newspapers?

Newspaper publishers are running out of costs to cut, and they need to show some real ad-revenue gains soon.

Executives from major publishing chains have clung to a slight moderation in their ad revenue's year-over-year rate of decline from quarter to quarter this year as a sign of improvement.

But that probably has more to do with the mathematics of easing comparisons to last year's economic decline than it does with any actual improvements in this year's ad performance.

The reality is that newspapers are suffering severe declines in ad revenue this year on top of the double-digit percentage declines they suffered last year.

Compared with the first half of 2009, their recent performance doesn't appear to be getting much worse, but it has yet to show any real recovery.

-- Wall Street Journal

Now, because I play on both sides of the court (I am a reporter at a newspaper who's parent company currently is in bankrupcy court), I see the issue this way.

Newspapers always thought they were community institutions. They sponsored Turkey Trots, 3-on-3 tournaments, picnics and their buildings were supposed to be like city halls and court houses.

So they never changed.

With that in mind, why wouldn't companies with dwindling advertising revenues do things more efficiently with direct e-mails and more searchable Web sites?

When you want to know where to find a restaurant or what time a movie starts, do you look through the newspaper or do you go online? What about buying a car? Would you prefer to search through news ads, or go online where you can compare prices with search tools?

Although it may cost me some salary some day at my newspaper job, I cannot argue for newspapers in this regard. Online advertising is just better.