Market Trends

Weak economic growth in 2011 and expectations for 2012, which have become increasingly negative during the course of the year, have led to a 3.8% reduction in advertising spending compared with 2010 (source: Nielsen Media Research). This negative trend has affected all traditional media, from television, which has contracted by 6.1%, except in the case of digital and satellite TV channels, to radio and print, which have dropped by 7.8% and 6.3% respectively. Advertising sales for new media have on the other hand been positive, with a substantial rise in the case of the Internet (+12.3%) and terrestrial digital channels, which have just about doubled their turnover. In the case of print, advertising sales for newspapers have contracted by 7.7%, with -5.8% in the case of paid newspapers and a dramatic fall in the case of the free press. The drop in sales for periodicals, -3.7%, has been more limited partly as a result of the good performance of the fashion sector. As for circulation, ADS data (12-month moving average to November 2011, on a like-for-like basis) show a fall in newsstand sales of 4.7% for dailies, 3.6% for weeklies, and 6% for monthlies.

The Newspaper Market

The total circulation of newspapers dropped by 4.4% in November 2011 (source: ADS) and newsstand sales fell by 4.7%. Advertising revenues for paid newspapers dropped 5.8%, with trends that are substantially similar for the national and local press.

The Market for Local Newspapers

The local-newspaper sector posted a drop in circulation of 5.5% in November over the previous year (source: ADS), indicating a trend that is worse than that of the newspaper sector as a whole (-4.4%)

Advertising sales were down 5.6% (source: FCP), which is essentially similar to that of paid newspapers as a whole (-5.8%).

The Periodicals Market

ADS data (12-month moving average to November 2011) show that circulation in the magazines market was down 5.4% on a like-for-like basis, which mainly affected monthlies (-6.2%) and, to a lesser degree, weeklies (-4.6%).

Advertising sales were down 3.7%, showing a less negative trend than that of the print sector as a whole (-6.3%).

The Market for Radio

After the improvement posted in 2010 (+7.7%), in 2011 advertising sales for radio suffered a significant decline (-7.8%), reflecting a general weakness in investment and a greater availability of television space.