No Impulse For Ad Recovery Until 2004, Says Sorrell

Despite a number of more optimistic forecasts released recently, the ‘impulse’ for a real recovery in advertising spend will not come until 2004, WPP chairman Sir Martin Sorrell told the German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag this weekend.

In an interview with the paper, Sorrell said that current factors give little cause for hope for a recovery this year, although he believes that 2003 will be slightly better than 2002, as 2002 was somewhat better than 2001. Next year, spend will be boosted by the Athens Olympics and the US presidential elections, he said.

Commenting on the struggle to grow revenue in the press sector, Sorrell said that the problems within print are partly structural and partly cyclical. The national press has been strongly affected and business press has been hit by the problems in the telecoms, technology and financial industries, he said.

“The regional press seems to be better. I see larger structural change, however, in the television sector, away from the large network operators, to more closely-focused satellite and cable broadcasters and to direct marketing and the internet,” he predicted.

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