The dramatic slump in advertising revenue continues

Here’s the reason why executives at ITV are so worried about the current downturn and why newspaper and magazine journalists are collectively worried for the survival of their titles…

Some stunning data is provided by the World Advertising Research Council (WARC). They have just reported on UK advertising revenue in the second quarter on 2009.

Online advertising revenues have just about held their own - basically stable, albeit a relatively weak performance compared with the significant growth online advertising has enjoyed in recent years.

But the for print media in particular, the data looks pretty grim: for example

—Newspapers: Down by 27.6 percent
—Magazines: Down by one third exactly
—Outdoor (i.e poster / billboards): Down by 26.1 percent
—Cinema: Down 14.7 percent
—Radio: Down 14.4 percent

The problem for media businesses is that advertising revenue is essentially 100% gross profit margin - there are few cost savings from unsold advertising space or time. Advertisers continue to cut back on their non-online promotional spend and it is severely damaging the businesses of media publishers.