WebProNews

Between the decline in newspaper performance and the dominance of financial reporting in the news, you would think that online financial publications would be one area that is flourishing in this economic downturn.

You would be wrong though, if the Street.com's fourth quarter and full-year financial results are any indication. For the fourth quarter, TheStreet.com reported total revenue of $16.5 million, a decrease of 17% from revenue of $19.9 million reported for the fourth quarter of 2007.

“The market environment is clearly difficult for both our marketing services and our premium research subscription products,” said CEO Thomas J. Clarke, Jr.

"While forward visibility into each business line is extremely limited, we remain focused on ensuring that our costs are in line with the current revenue environment," he continued. "We have reduced our headcount throughout 2008 by 11%, and our operating expenses declined by 6% sequentially. We will continue to aggressively manage costs and maintain our strong balance sheet."

To be fair, revenue for the year did increase 10% when compared to the previous year. Don't expect that kind of growth over 2009 though.

"We expect the difficult market environment to continue in 2009," said CFO Eric Ashman. "Early indications suggest that the year-over-year decline in advertising revenue that we saw in the fourth quarter will increase in the first half of the year, while the pressure on the subscriber base is likely to continue as many investors are no longer market participants, and job reductions in the financial sector reduce the pool of interested consumers."

This month, TheStreet.com launched the Real Money TV (RMTV) channel for subscribers, a new video channel with exclusive access to video content 48 hours before it’s published to the free site. See the full financial report here.