UK National Newspaper Ad Volumes Slowly Recovering

While the number of display ad pages remained flat, the number of classified pages rose by 1.1% year-on-year. Daily newspapers enjoyed a rise of 0.7% in total ad pages, while the Sunday newspapers fell by 0.8%; the distribution of ads across the dailys and Sundays remained at 76% and 24% respectively.

Sunday newspapers recorded a fall of nearly 6% in classified pages and display ads rose by just over 0.5%, leaving total page volumes down 1% when compared to the previous year. In contrast, daily newspapers recorded a 2.7% rise in classified ads and display ads slipped by 0.2%.

Daily newspapers The Sun, which has the largest daily circulation, reported the best year-on-year figures with total ad pages rising by 7.2%; display ads were up by 5.8% and classifieds by 10.7%.

Due to the uncertain economic conditions, there was a downturn in corporate and financial advertising which affected the Financial Times. It suffered the greatest decrease in ad pages with a fall of 4.6%; display ads also fell by 11.6% in the past 12 months to February.

The Guardian, which carries more ads than any other paper, also saw total pages slipping down by 2.5%, with display down 3.3% and classifieds 1.5%.

Adstats has an optimistic outlook for 2004. The year has started with the number of ad pages rising by 4.7% in January and the momentum looks set to continue.