National newspapers will continue to falter in the face of the internet, which is this year predicted to become the third biggest advertising medium by spend, according to research carried out by GroupM, a WPP holding company. The report draws on data collected from WPP agencies MindShare, Mediaedge:cia, MediaCom and Maxus.
The internet is forecast to take 13.3% of the total media advertising market (worth £12 billion a year) to December 2007 with national newspapers expected to take 13.2%.
Regional newspapers will continue to do well according to the research, and they will retain their second place position with 19.6% of the market, behind television’s 28.8%.
Adam Smith, features director at GroupM, said: “Every year people think the internet must slow down because the growth rate looks high but it keeps going. Overtaking national newspapers is another milestone.”
GroupM also predicted a 2% decline in television advertising revenue and an 11% decline for ITV1, perhaps in part because the boost expected to come from the World Cup does not look like materialising.
A report by KPMG and Thomson Intermedia released earlier this month (see Digital And Direct Media Drive Ad Spend Up) showed that overall growth of the advertising industry was entirely sustained by digital and direct media.