I wonder also how much of this ad money isn’t insurance against being treated too harshly by the newspaper.
There are ads in newspapers where I just can’t think of any other reason. Like an ad for EADS (don’t remember if it was EADS or an equivalent). I ain’t going to buy an Airbus airliner in my next sunday shopping! And I doubt airlines make decisions based on ads.
Could be brand recognition - subsidised by the airlines (potentially unintentionally, when the price of the marketing is baked into the cost of an airplane) to make you feel somehow better in flying in an Airbus instead of a Boeing.
Now they know, and they also know the amount of waste is much higher.
This plus the destruction of classified ads has hit the newspaper industry hard.
Now pile on top all the "news" sites that don't really spend any money on editors, research, or reporting (all those sites that post articles about other articles or even worse tweets) that directly compete with newspapers on advertising money and you have a very bleak environment.