Newspaper advertising revenue fell 7.9 percent in 2007, the second-worst year in more than half a century, the Newspaper Association of America said on Friday. Those figures include continued growth in online advertising.

Until last fall, the industry appeared headed for a less severe decline. But as the economy slowed, newspapers suffered a particularly bad fourth quarter  the peak period for ad sales  with revenue down 10.3 percent from a year earlier.

Revenue from ads in printed newspapers dropped 9.4 percent for the year, the biggest drop in any year since 1950, the period charted by the association.

Internet ad revenue on newspaper sites rose 18.8 percent, a marked slowdown from the torrid pace of the previous three years, when it averaged 30 percent annual growth. Online ads accounted for just 7.5 percent of all newspaper ad revenue in 2007, evidence that it will be years before digital growth outweighs the print slump.