Digital will continue its meteoric growth, albeit at a slightly diminished pace. That's been the battle cry these past few months from advertisers and publishers alike when asked what effect a weakening U.S. economy may have on the future of the web. But at The New York Times, it's not such a happy story.

The New York Times Company posted a 17.9 percent decline in total ad revenue for the month of July. While that dip is hardly a surprise given the difficulties facing the print business, the big shock was that digital ad revenue grew by a paltry 1 percent.

"July's digital results were due to a relative weak month in display advertising, coupled with weaker-than-expected help-wanted advertising across the News Media Group," a Times spokeswoman told AdAge. "We are expecting better performance in display advertising at NYTimes.com in August. To date, in August, online advertising for the News Media Group is trending up in the low double digits."

While the news at the Times may be an aberration for the company, projections for digital's overall growth have routinely been downgraded in the past few months.