UK advertising spending grew to a record £10.8bn in the first six months of this year – but news brands and magazines saw their ad revenue decline, according to Advertising Association data.
Overall UK advertising revenue grew 3.7 per cent in the first six months of this year.
Internet advertising accounted for around half the total and grew by 14 per cent (with mobile phone-based advertising up 38.1 per cent).
But with national news brands, regional news brands, magazines brands and TV advertising all down – it looks like most of the advertising growth is going to US-based technology giants Google and Facebook.
National newsbrands saw their digital advertising income grow by 15.6 per cent in the first half of the year and regional newsbrands were up 15.3 per cent per cent year on year.
But overall advertising for national newsbrands (print and digital combined) declined by 8.5 per cent year on year and regional newsbrands fell by 15.3 per cent.
For magazines digital advertising fell by 9 per cent in the first half and overall ad revenue was down 15.2 per cent.
The forecast is for national news brand advertising to decline overall by 7.8 per cent this year from last year’s £1.1bn total.
Regional news brands are forecast to drop by 12.8 per cent in 2017 from last year’s £1bn advertising total.
And magazine brands are expected to see an 11 per cent drop in advertising, compared with £877m last year.
Meanwhile overall UK internet advertising is forecast to grow to £11.4bn this year with the majority of that money going to Google and Facebook.
Radio advertising grew by 5.2 per cent in the first half of the year driven by a 22.2 per cent increase in digital. It is forecast to improve on last year’s £646m total by 4.2 per cent this year.
Advertising Association chief executive Stephen Woodford said: “Spend on advertising is showing strong resilience, at a time of real uncertainty for UK business…The upgrade of our 2017 forecast by a further one per cent, the equivalent of an additional investment of £190m, should be seen as a cautious indicator of continued growth in the UK economy.”
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