When newspaper companies released their quarterly earnings for the past two years, the news tended to follow this arc: circ, print ad revenues tended to be down, while online kept on growing. But for a number of major publishers, this past Q2 witnessed online declines by Tribune (-4 percent), AH Belo (NYSE: AHC) (NYSE: BLC) (-11 percent), EW Scripps (NYSE: SSP) (-8 percent) and Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE) (-9.1 percent). AdAge asks what happened this time out, and identified the usual suspects: a battered economy and the slow transition from undivided sales for both print and web to independent teams for each. As has been noted many times before, convergent ad sales that tie print and online together tend to dilute any gains, as marketers just spread their ad budget around to both sides, instead of increasing their spending. That’s a major reason that newspapers have not been able to ride the wave of local online ad growth.

—Exceptions: While McClatchy’s (NYSE: MNI) Q2 earnings report was predictably poor, as profits and revenues in general continued to fall, online revs were up 12.5 percent. However, since they made up only 11.8 percent of total ad dollars—compared to an 8.6 percent share for all of 2007—it’s still not enough to offset wider declines. Still that represents a considerable reversal from McClatchy’s Q207, when its online ad revs dropped to $13.7 million in Q2 from $14 million, for a decrease of 2.1 percent. The Washington Post Co (NYSE: WPO). also reported the usual dismal profit and revenue picture in Q2, but web revs were positive, growing 4 percent. But unlike McClatchy, things were worse this year, as in WaPo’s Q207 website revenues gained 11 percent.

—Growth rates remain slow: At best, slow growth will be the best newspapers can hope for for the next year. Randy Bennett, SVP-business development at the Newspaper Association of America, tells AdAge that the business can most likely expect double-digit online-revenue gain to continue for the next 12 months, but growth will be slower. According to figures the NAA released last month, Q1 newspaper web revenues rose only 7.2 percent to $804 million versus the 22 percent gains posted the year before.

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• Even As Local Online Ad Spend Surges, Newspapers Can’t Win
• Earnings: Tribune Q2 Revs Fall 5.7 Percent; Takes Huge Loss On Writedown; Interactive Down
• Earnings: Scripps Q2 up 3.8 Percent; Op Income Slips
• Updated: Earnings: AH Belo Q2 Swings To Loss; Internet Revs Fall 11 Percent; Trimming Staff By 500
• Earnings: McClatchy Q2 Revenues, Profits Plummet, As Online Ad Sales Grow 12.5 Percent
• Earnings: Ad Slump Hits Online, As Lee Enterprises’ Q2 Internet Revs Fall 9.1 Percent