In 2013 dollars, American newspaper ad revenue grew from around $20 billion in 1950 to $65.8 billion in 2000—then dropped to $23.6 billion as of last year (including digital and “other” ad revenue). This is from Mark J. Perry of AEI, hat tip to Conrad Hackett. Perry writes, “The dramatic decline in newspaper ad revenues since 2000 has to be one of the most significant and profound Schumpeterian gales of creative destruction in the last decade, maybe in a generation.” Of course, this doesn’t account for all the ad revenue generated by America’s independent bloggers and publishers, who have to some extent displaced the work once done by newspapers. Still, it is a breathtaking change.