LOCAL AD SPENDING ONLINE BALLOONED 28 percent to $2.7 billion last year, according to a report released Monday by research company Borrell Associates. The report, "What Local Web Sites Earn: 2005 Survey," based on a survey of Web sites of 2,177 local media properties, predicts even higher expansion--46 percent, to $3.9 billion--this year. Local marketers of computer-related services spent the largest proportion of their ad budgets--7.3 percent--online, followed by bars and restaurants--3.3 percent--and business-to-business advertisers--3.2 percent. Borrell defined local advertising as "advertising placed by locally based businesses for locally focused online messages."
Overall economic growth was more consistent in 2004 than 2003, rising at what many economists considered an "above-trend" level. When the final figures are in for the full year, 2004 will probably have an increase in Gross Domestic Product of about 4.4 percent. That is about a full percentage point above what many consider to be the underlying growth potential for the economy
Goldman Sachs, an investment firm not holding a conference next week, put together a handy primer on what to expect for 2005. And judging from analyst Peter Appert's views, it's not much.
Advertising sales at alt-weeklies varied from region to region during the first half of 2004, in large part following the path of the spotty economic recovery. Happily, the second quarter of the year was an improvement over the first, both for national sales overall and for local sales at selected alt-weeklies. Freelance writer John Ferri reports for AAN News on the state of the business.
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