$272m wiped off media advertising spend last year

Media advertising fell nearly 12pc last year, with newspaper ad revenue falling 18pc. Online advertising was the only category that increased - up 10.9pc from the year before. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today

Media companies will be hoping they have moved beyond the unprecedented advertising slump of last year.

The Advertising Standards Authority yesterday released figures for advertising media turnover.

They show the total media spend for 2009 tumbled by $272 million, or 11.7 per cent, from 2008, dropping from $2.317 billion to $2.045 billion.

Nearly half of the fall was from a $137 million, or 18 per cent, drop in newspaper advertising revenue.

Last year was a bad one for many media with job- and cost-cutting at major companies including The Radio Network, TVNZ and MediaWorks.

The good news for media is that the Association of New Zealand Advertisers - the body which represents the big corporate advertisers - shares their view that the only way is up.

"So far this year I think that it has been steady as she goes," said ANZA executive director Jeremy Irwin. "But it will be a while before we return to the heady days of a few years back."

Irwin said the fall in media spending did not represent a total collapse in the marketing budgets overall.

There had been a trend for companies to spend more on in-store marketing promotions rather than traditional advertising.

Martin Gillman, of advertising consultancy MG.com, said the ASA figures - based on information supplied by media - dropped more than he had expected. As for this year: "My view is that overall spending will not fall further but that there will continue to be a change in where and how that money is spent."

Among categories in the ASA figures, newspapers retained their role with the biggest share of media spending, though it fell from 32.8 per cent of the total media spend to 30.5 per cent.

In dollar terms it dropped from $760 million to $623 million.

Television retained its 27.9 per share of a diminished market and lost $77 million or 11.9 per cent. Radio slipped only slightly from 11.6 per cent to 11.5 per cent share, losing $32 million or 11.9 per cent.

Magazines maintained their number four position holding a slim lead on the only growing category for media spending - interactive (internet spending).

Interactive's share of the market rose from 8.3 per cent to 10.5 per cent.

Interactive revenue increased $21 million or 10.9 per cent in 2009 compared to 2008.