Ads Up 10% at Natl. Newspapers, 7.5% at Local Papers

By: Katy Bachman (Mediaweek) Buoyed by the nation's top advertisers, ad spending increased a healthy 9.1% to $67.6 billion in the first half of the year, according to figures released by TNS Media Intelligence/CMR, which measures advertising expenditures across 17 media genres.

With political and Olympics spending in the third quarter, the trend is expected to continue, putting advertising on track to end the year up 9-10%, forecasted Steven Fredericks, president and CEO of TNS/CMR.

The top 10 advertisers, led by No. 1 spender Procter & Gamble, placed $8.2 billion in advertising in the first half of the year, an increase of 5.7%. Several advertisers had double-digit increases, including Walt Disney Co. (13.2% to $743.9 million), Verizon Communications (23.1% to $703.6 million) and Pfizer Inc. (10.9% to $539.7 million).

So far this year, political advertising totaled $398 million, with $210 million allocated in the second quarter.

"The totals we are seeing in the first half of this year from political and issue advertising are strong indicators that for the 2004 election year, ad spending will total $1.5 billion," said Fredericks.

Except for national spot radio, which declined by 0.3%, all media showed growth in the first six months of the year. Those posting double-digit growth included cable TV (up 18.2% to $6.8 billion), Internet (up 25.9% to $3.6 billion), syndication TV (17.5% to $1.9 billion), national newspapers (10.8% $1.6 billion) and local magazines (10.2% to $170 million).

Other media sectors posting gains in the first half include: local newspapers (up 7.5% to $11.9 billion), network TV (up 8.3% to $11.2 billion), consumer magazines (7.9% to $9.7 billion), spot TV (8% to $7.8 billion), local radio (3.5% to $3.5 billion), business-to-business magazines (1.5% to $2.5 billion), Hispanic media (3.9% to $1.7 billion), outdoor (3.6% to $1.4 billion), free-standing inserts (5.8% to $698 million), and network radio (4.9% to $503.6 million).