Total Ad Spending Expected to Advance But Not in Newspapers

By: E&P Staff Total advertising spending in the United States is forecasted to rise 4.2% in 2008 thanks to the Summer Olympics and a deluge of political ad dollars, according to new projections from TNS Media Intelligence.

But Jon Swallen, senior vice president of research at TNS, warned in a statement, "Offsetting this, a weakened economy will have a dampening effect on the boarder, core advertising market."

Spending is anticipated to increase by 3.6% in the first half of 2008 and then advance 4.7% in the second half of '08.

Of all the media measured by TNS, newspapers are forecasted to have the roughest year with negative growth, down 0.9% compared to spending in 2007.

Online advertising should surge 14.4%.

"The Internet will continue to gain share, principally at the expense of newspapers," Swallen said in a statement.

Over a two-year period, newspapers are expected to lose one percentage point of total ad share from 18.2% for the years 2006 and 2007 to 17.2% for the years 2007 and 2008.