According to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America, newspaper advertising expenditures for 2000 totaled $48.7 billion, an increase of 5.1% over 1999 National advertising was up by 13.7%, to $7.7 billion for the year, retail advertising was up 2.4% to $21.4 billion and classified rose by 5.1% to $19.6 billion.
“While some media are seeing slowdowns in ad spending, these numbers show respectable increases across the board for newspapers last year, particularly in national, which faced tough comparisons from the previous year,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm.
For Q4 2000, total ad spending in newspapers reached $13.9 billion, up 4.1% over the year before, national rose 8% to $1.9 billion, retail grew 2.9% to $6.3 billion and classified gained 4% to $5.7 billion.
Areas of greatest growth within classified were recruitment, which grew by 4.1% year on year and is currently worth $2.4 billion, automotive which gained 1% to $1.55 billion and real estate which increased by 5.8% to $994 million.
“Despite the sharp slowdown in the economy during the final quarter of the year, advertisers continued to demonstrate that newspapers remain the mainstay of their marketing plans by increasing their advertising investment in our medium,” said NAA VP/Market and Business Analysis Jim Conaghan.
