Advertising revenue at U.S. newspapers was down more than 27 percent last year, as both print and online saw declines in the double digits, according to figures released by the Newspaper Association of America on Wednesday, Agence France Presse reported today.

Print advertising was down 28.6 percent, to $24.82 billion, while online was down 11.8 percent to $2.74 billion. Combined, revenue fell 27.2 percent to $27.56 billion, compared to $37.84 billion in 2008.

Perhaps even worse, the drop last year shows an acceleration in decline for the year-over-year period, Editor & Publisher pointed out. The decline from 2005 to 2006 was 1.7 percent, in 2007 the decline was 9.4 percent and in 2008 the decline was 17.7 percent.

The scale of damage "is stunning," New York Times media writer Richard Perez-Pena stated. "The last time advertisers spent less on newspapers was in 1986."