Ad Slump Continues & Newspapers Fight Back.

The advertising market slump will continue through the end of 2002 in many countries, but newspaper investors aren’t overly concerned, a media analyst says.

“Advertising isn’t an investment priority. We assume it will come back, we assume it will be feeble in 2002 but will come back in 2003,” said Matthew Owen, an analyst with the investment bank Morgan Stanley, speaking to the World Association of Newspapers’ annual Newspaper Advertising Conference.

The conference, held in Monte Carlo, Monaco, last week, provided participants with ideas for generating revenue during the downturn and with strategies for positioning themselves for maximum benefit when the market rebounds.

Mr Owen said the cyclical downturn in the advertising market, particularly in North America and Western Europe, was exaggerated by the huge advertising boom in 2000 and early 2001.

“Over the last two years, we’ve gone through a phenomenon in terms of advertising that we will never see again in our lifetimes,” he said. “We saw an extraordinary bulge in advertising expenditures in 2000 which led to a sharp decline in 2001. The absolute level of advertising this year and in the first two quarters of 2003 won’t be so impressive.”

The WAN Newspaper Advertising Conference, which drew 190 participants from 43 countries, focused on the current economic reality and provided case studies and tactics for “Success in a Tough Market.”

During the two-day event, dozens of newspaper strategists discussed how they are coping with, and in some cases thriving in, the current market.

In Denmark, for example, one newspaper asked 100 top advertising clients to criticize their performance, and then acted on their responses. “We had to demonstrate that we were really business partners,” said Gorm Wesing Flyvholm, Advertising Director of the daily tabloid B.T.

In France, the regional daily La Dépêche du Midi re-defined the concept of “neighborhood” to extend its reach through the internet and other media. “It is very important to revisit the concept of being a neighborhood,” said Laurence Genevet, Commercial Director of the newspaper. “It has changed immensely in recent times. We have moved from one type of society to another.”

In Scotland, a business newspaper found new revenues in sponsored supplements, business directories and even a new lifestyle section. “It opened up opportunities to attract part of the advertising industry not usually associated with business publications,” said Barry Henderson, Commercial Director of Business a.m.

And in the United States, the Chicago Tribune is continually developing new products with a firm view on readers’ needs and readers’ interests — and those of the advertisers too. “To have the future in view, we need some specific understanding of who we serve,” said Tony Majeri Jr., Senior Editor for Innovation. “We are learning how to create marketplaces that are interesting for the reader, and might also be interesting to advertisers.”

Summaries of all the presentations can be found on the WAN web site at http://www.wan-press.org/ce/adcon2002/index.html.