Agora ad sales fall nearly 30 pct in April -report

WARSAW, May 18 (Reuters) - Advertising sales at Polish publisher Agora's AGOD.WA flagship daily dropped by nearly 30 percent in April, outpacing a 22 percent fall among dailies, a local media web portal said on Monday.

Sales of advertising space in Agora's Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's top non-tabloid daily, fell to 67 million zlotys ($20.3 million), or 28 million less than in the year-ago period, according to data compiled for Wirtualnemedia.pl.

The data, based on book prices without the usual discounts for larger advertisers and cross-promotion, showed advertising sales in all Polish dailies declined to 198 million zlotys.

The sharp drop shows companies in Poland first reduce their advertising spending in print media when faced with an economic slowdown.

The largest, 47 percent decline befell Axel Springer's (SPRGn.DE) Polish daily Dziennik, which saw ad sales drop to 11 million zlotys. The German group's tabloid Fakt, Poland's No.1 daily, fell the least -- down 1.4 percent to 17 million.

Agora, whose shares are down 14 percent since the start of the year after a 71 percent tumble in 2008, has raised the price of Wyborcza already twice this year to counter falling readership and sales.

The publisher, which saw its advertising market share shrink by three percentage points to a third in April, surprised last week with a net profit in the first quarter, made however on dwindling sales, the bulk of which are generated by Wyborcza. ($1=3.302 Zloty) (Reporting by Adrian Krajewski; editing by Mike Nesbit)