• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, September 11, 2012

Print ad spending continued to dwindle in the first half of 2012, even as overall media spending grew modestly, according to the latest figures from Kantar Media. This disparity provides further confirmation that the decline of print media is a long-term trend that is unlikely to reverse anytime soon.
 
Kantar Media calculates that total media spending grew 0.9% in the second quarter to 34 billion compared to the same period in 2011. With a 2.6% increase in the first quarter, this yields an overall growth rate of 1.9% in the first half of the year to $67 billion. In the same period, TV ad spending increased 4.4%, outdoor was up 2.5%, and radio increased 1.9%.
 
However, growth in these media was canceled out to some degree by the drag of print ad-spending declines. According to Kantar, local newspapers saw ad spending decrease 1.9%, Spanish-language papers were down 2.5%, and national newspapers tumbled 10.7%. Consumer magazines saw ad spending fall 2.6%.
 
These numbers are roughly in agreement with separate figures provided by industry organizations, including the Newspaper Association of America and the Publishers Information Bureau.
 
According to the NAA, total print and online ad spending for newspapers decreased 6.4% from nearly $6 billion in the second quarter of 2011 to $5.6 billion in the second quarter of 2012. For the first half of the year, total ad spending declined 6.7% from $11.5 billion to $10.8 billion.
 
PIB data shows total magazine ad pages dropping 8.2% in the second quarter to 33,828, and 8.8% in the first half to 74,476.

advertisement

advertisement