Retail advertising spending rose 2.5% to $4.7 billion; national spend increased 3.7% to $1.8 billion and classified was down by 0.2% to $3.5 billion.
“While the war in Iraq may have dampened expectations for increased ad spending in the first quarter, these latest numbers show that newspaper ad spending continued to gain ground. The war began – and ended – in the midst of an emerging advertising recovery, and we fully expect ad spending in newspapers to keep on growing as the overall ad market regains its momentum,” said NAA CEO John F. Sturm.
The NAA’s vice-president of business analysis, Jim Conaghan, says that both the US economy and newspaper advertising should get better in the second half of the year.
For Q4’s NAA figures click US Newspaper Ad Recovery Continues In Q4 2002.
