Big Quarter For National Advertising As Newspaper Revenues Rise Again

National advertising spending rose by 12.8% to $2.1 billion with significant gains from telecommunications, factory automotive and coupon marketing. Retail spend increased by 1.7% to $5.3 billion while classifieds were down 3.9% to $3.6 billion.

Within the classified category in the second quarter, real estate ad spending had the largest percentage gain, up 9% to $904 million. Automotive advertising maintained its upward trend, rising 1.7% to $1.2 billion. However, recruitment advertising dropped 15% to $956 million, as the US economy tightened, and all other classifieds fell 11.2% to $594 million.

“Advertisers are re-discovering the effectiveness of newspapers as a highly effective national advertising platform, and this strong second quarter growth continues that trend,” said NAA president and CEO John F. Sturm. “We’re also encouraged by overall industry advertising revenue growth, including growth in a number of key categories.”

First half spending For the first half of 2003, retail advertising expenditure was up 2.1% to $10.0 billion, national climbed 8.4% to $3.8 billion and classifieds dropped 2.2% to $7.1 billion. Overall, newspaper adspend for the six months to June totalled $20.9 billion, an increase of 1.7% year on year.

“With economic growth poised to accelerate in the second half of the year, we expect to see larger ad spending increases in the third and fourth quarters,” said NAA Vice President of Business Analysis and Research Jim Conaghan.

According to the latest NAA/Merrill Lynch estimates, US newspaper ad revenues will grow by 2.9% in 2003 and by 5.1% in 2004 (see US Newspaper Spend To Grow 3% In 2003, Says Merrill Lynch).

2003 Newspaper Advertising Expenditure
	National	Retail	Classified	Total
Q1 2002	$1.8	$4.7	$3.5	$9.9
% Change	3.7	2.5	-0.2	1.8
Q2 2002	$2.1	$5.3	$3.6	$11.1
% Change	12.8	1.7	-3.9	1.6
H1 2002	$3.8	$10.0	$7.1	$20.9
% Change	8.4	2.1	-2.2	1.7
Source: NAA, August 2003