US media lose $10 billion advertising in first half (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Financial Times ^ | September 1, 2009 | Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson
Posted on Wed Sep 2 15:36:13 2009 by abb

More than $10bn in advertising disappeared from US media markets in the first six months of this year, according to new data that show intense pressure on media owners and ad agencies as they search for other business models.

Preliminary figures from Nielsen show a 15.4 per cent year-on-year decline in US advertising revenues, the largest drop for any period in the decade since the marketing and media measurement group began compiling such reports.

The study showed sharp differences in the behaviour of different media and product categories, with cable television the only medium on which ad spend increased, up 1.5 per cent across English language channels and up 0.6 per cent for Spanish channels.

By contrast “spot” advertising, booked at short notice, fell by 17.4 per cent in the top 100 local TV markets and by 32.1 per cent in the 110 next largest markets. Even internet advertising, from which Nielsen’s excludes search engine spending, slipped 1 per cent.

Newspapers, for some time the weakest media performers because of the online migration of classified advertising, turned in further heavy declines. Local and national newspapers saw 13.2 per cent and 22.8 per cent falls respectively, as Sunday supplement advertising dropped 22.4 per cent nationally and 45.7 per cent locally.

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(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com …