A major example came from Tribune Company, which reported a 40 percent decline in November real estate classified ad revenues at its Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times.

Gannett said it was on track for a 27 percent drop in real estate advertising for the fourth quarter after reporting a 23 percent slide in the third quarter, the Financial Times said. Several others have reported similar circumstances.

While reminiscent of the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000, the current problem presents broader challenges, the report said, because in part of the flight of classified ads to low-cost competitors on the Internet, the Financial Times said.

John Morton, head of Morton Research, a newspaper consultancy, called it "a strong negative impact" and posed the question of whether advertising will come back as before when the housing situation clears up.