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Publishing a financial trading update for June, Gannett said that Newsquest's classified real estate ad revenues plummeted by 44.2%, by 19.4% in employment and 24.5% in automotive.

Newsquest operates 300 newspaper titles in the UK including The Argus in Brighton and Scotland's Sunday Herald.

In July, Gannett reported a 19% fall in UK ad revenue over the year to 29 June. Alongside the fall in classified ad sales, real estate revenue fell by 36.8% over the year to 29 June and employment ads dropped by 17.3% over the same period, while car ad revenues were 14.9% lower.

In June, Gannett announced that it plans to write down its assets by up to $3bn to reflect the declining value of its operations in the US and the UK.

Newsquest's announcement is the latest in a series of gloomy trading updates by regional newspaper publishers. Last month, Trinity Mirror announced that its pre-tax profit in the first half of 2008 plunged by 27.9% year-on-year to £70.8m, as the company announced declines in ad revenue at its regional and national divisions.

Total revenue at Trinity Mirror's regionals unit increased 4.7% to £216.4m, led by a 33.6% surge in digital revenue, although nationals' print revenues were down 7.3% to £196.6m.

Regionals' ad revenue for the half-year fell by 6%, with Trinity Mirror revealing that it experienced an acceleration in the rate of ad revenue decline during the period, with a year-on-year decline of 3% for January and February, 3.3% for March and April, and 11.3% for May and June.