No point in sugarcoating it: even the online ad revenues for the newspapers are in a bad shape: For the Q308 numbers released by Newspaper Association of America (via Robert MacMillan): total online ad revenues came in at about $749 million, down 3 percent from the previous quarter figures of $776.5 million. This is the second straight quarter of online ad revenue decline for U.S. newspapers. Print, not surprisingly, is down a more brutal 20 percent.

John Strum, the CEO of NAA, is putting up a brave face: “The continued reliance on newspaper advertising by companies, industries, candidates, foreign governments and others who have something important to say to the American consumer and society - proof of the power of newspapers to influence attitudes and action.” Ah, the parallel world…

Speaking of parallel worlds, professional pithy advice-giver Seth Godin has his analysis of what went wrong at the New York Times, and what could still be done to save it. He has a brilliantly original idea: “using existing momentum and clout to build assets for the next business.” Yep, I warned you about the pithy part…