Broadsheets 'hardest hit by advertising slump'

The slump in advertising expenditure continued in the final quarter of last year, with broadsheet newspapers hardest hit, according to figures released today.

Spending by UK advertisers fell by 6.9%, or £263m (€426m), in the fourth quarter, compared with the same period in 2000.

For the whole of 2001, spending fell by 3.2%. It meant the industry spent £13.8bn (€22.7bn) throughout 2001, compared with £14.3bn (€23.1bn) the previous year, according to data compiled by the World Advertising Research Centre.

National newspapers suffered the worst from the downturn in spending in the fourth quarter - down 17.5% on the same period in 2000.

Within this, ‘popular’ newspapers witnessed a 13% fall in revenue, while in broadsheet newspapers the drop was 27%.

National newspapers saw the amount spent on advertising down 8% for the whole of 2001, to just over £2bn (€3.2bn).

While classified and recruitment advertising dropped by 19% for the year, property advertising rose by 31%, according to the data.

In other sectors, television ad spend fell for the fourth successive quarter - by 13% - or 11% for the year as a whole.

This represents a loss of £425m (€689m) in advertising revenue for the television industry, and takes the total below the level it was in 1999.

Jeff Curtis, from the World Advertising Research Centre, who produced the figures for the Advertising Association, said an upturn in expenditure was not predicted until at least the middle of this year.

‘‘The interesting thing is that consumer confidence has remained strong but the other side is where the money comes from,’’ he said. ‘‘There still seems to be a lot of caution among advertisers.’’