Share prices at a number of U.S. newspaper companies increased on Wednesday as investors hope that cost cuts will allow an economic recovery that includes advertising revenue increases and see industry loses decline, if not end, The Associated Press reported Thursday.

According a TNS Media Intelligence report, advertising spending remained the same from the first to second quarter of 2009. This was reflected in a rise in stock prices at a number of large U.S. newspaper publishers.

However, Jon Swallen, SVP of research at TNS Media Intelligence, warned that even though the rate of decline in ad spending was level in the second quarter, ad spending in the quarter was down 13.9 percent compared to the same quarter in 2008.

"While it's tempting to interpret this as a positive indicator that things aren't getting worse, the fact remains that the market has been steadily tracking at around 14 percent declines for several consecutive months and this represents billions of lost revenue. Early data from third quarter hint at possible improvements for some media due to easy comparisons against distressed levels of year ago expenditures," he said, according to a TNS report.

Meanwhile, however, U.S. newspaper companies did see their shares did rise, with The New York Times Co. up 94 cents (12 percent), to close at US$8.82; Gannett Co., Inc.'s shares rose 93 cents (10 percent) to $9.99; E.W. Scripps Co., rose 88 cents (11 percent), to $8.83 and McClatchy Co. rose 5 cents (1.9 percent), to $2.66.

"There are some hints that things are getting better," said Dave Novosel, media analyst at Gimme Credit, told the AP.