From MarketingCharts.org

Ad Spending Climbs 5.1%; TV Gains 10.5%

U.S. ad spending saw some significant increases in the first quarter, with Q1 spending hikes “broadly distributed” across advertisers and categories, according to Kantar Media.

“That’s an encouraging signal for the market going forward,” says Jon Swallen, svp of research at Kantar.

Overall, ad expenditures rose 5.1% in Q110 from a year ago, to $31.3 billion.

Of the 19 media types tracked by Kantar, 13 experienced a spending increase in the first quarter.

Spending by Media

TV
Overall, TV gained 10.5%:
—Spot TV surged 22% due to a torrent of additional money from the automotive, retail, financial services and political categories. Despite the growth, spot TV has still only recovered to a level last seen in 1997.
—Network TV jumped 11.6%, due to a boost from Winter Olympics.
—Cable TV was up 8.2%
—Spanish language TV was up 7.2%
—Syndication was down 13.2%

Radio
Radio was up 7.4% overall:
—National spot radio soared 19%, with help from increased spending in telecom, financial services and auto categories
—Local radio was up 4.6%
—Network radio was up 3%

The Radio Advertising Bureau’s figures on radio growth were slightly less optimistic. The RAB reported earlier this week that radio advertising was up 6% in the first quarter.

Print
Print media lagged the overall ad market. Magazines were down 3.2% and newspapers slipped 3.7%:
—Consumer magazine spending fell 3.9%
—B-to-b magazines dropped 8.4%
—Local newspapers slipped 5.6%
—Sunday magazine spending jumped 13.7%
—National newspapers managed to gain 9.1%, primarily from increases at the Wall Street Journal.

Internet, Outdoor and FSIs

Internet (display ads only) gained 5%, while outdoor was essentially flat, down 0.4%. FSIs jumped 12.8%.

Full story here

From Editor and Publisher and MediaPost

Newspapers First Ad Rep Firm To Close
Erik Sass

Newspapers First, one of the leading national advertising sales rep firms, is going out of business June 4, according to Editor & Publisher. The demise of Newspapers First is a sign that despite signs of a broader economic turnaround and some glimmers of hope at big newspaper publishers, the newspaper business is still in dire straits.

The firm represents newspapers with a total audience of 21 million during the week and 29 million on Sundays, covering the top 125 DMAs, including The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Miami Herald, Detroit Free Press & News, Cincinnati Enquirer, Houston Chronicle, Phoenix Republic, and Denver Post.

Newspapers First offered advertisers customized, geotargeted campaigns, taking advantage of just-in-time delivery to execute ad placements in contextually relevant editorial environments. It specialized in targeting lifestyle segments and niche demographics, as well as database marketing, product sampling and online advertising. (NF reached an aggregate Web audience generating more than 1 billion page views per month.)

Created by a consortium of newspaper publishers, which came together to combine their national sales forces over a number of decades, Newspapers First can be viewed as a bellwether for falling national print ad demand.

Last July, the company downsized its staff by almost half, according to E&P. CEO Bob Termotto said the decision to close the company was prompted by the adverse business environment, adding that the newspaper business "needs a new direction," especially in "how they're going to handle national advertising."

According to the Newspaper Association of America, total national advertising spending has plunged 46% from a peak of $8.1 billion in 2004 to just $4.4 billion in 2009. The last ad spending forecasts from Magna have total newspaper ad revenues continuing to decline through 2015.

Click to read this article on the MediaPostPublications.com website.

From PaidContent.org:

 For the most part, The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) had a pretty good Q1—except, of course, for the magazine division (i.e., Newsweek), which saw revenue plunge 36 percent to $29.4 million. While Newsweek had a for sale sign hung on it this week, the newspaper division’s troubles have sharply abated. In Q1, newspaper revs declined 3 percent, a vast improvement over last year’s deep 22 percent drop. But the good news on the newspaper publishing side, which is primarily represented by WaPo’s flagship, came from the web, as display revs jumped 17 percent. (For more details on Newsweek’s dismal Q1, see Staci D. Kramer’s piece here.)

Earlier this week, the WaPo’s online-only Slate Group said that its ad revenues were up 52 percent. The positive results at Slate, which is part of the newspaper division, weren’t able to obscure the continued struggles for its print-based sibling as the washingtonpost.com’s classified sales were down 22 percent, hardly better than Q109’s 23 percent fall.

Here’s a snapshot of the newspaper division’s during Q1:

—Print ad revenue at The Washington Post fell 8 percent to $68.7 million, largely due to pullback in general and retail advertising.

—The paper’s daily circ dropped 12.5 percent, while Sunday circulation slid 10.4 percent. The company blamed it on the abnormally higher circ surrounding the news around last year’s presidential inauguration.

—The division posted an operating loss of $13.8 million, considerable improvement over last year’s $53.8 million loss.

Overall, net income was $45.4 million ($4.91 per share) versus the $19.2 million ($2.04 loss per share) net loss in Q109. As usual, the company’s strength came from its cable and education units.