NEW YORK: DoubleClick, a leading provider of marketing tools for advertisers, direct marketers and web publishers, has announced the release of its Cross Media Ad Spending report commissioned in conjunction with Nielsen//NetRatings. The study was designed to gain a complete picture of the relative growth of ad spending by media and the key industry segments in the US over the last five years.

The study supports the drop that all media has seen in ad spending with the recession. More specifically, the data found that certain categories of advertising, magazines and online advertising have been particularly hard hit.

The following are some findings from the study:

The television ad spend has recovered quicker than any other media. With more than half of ad expenditures, 55 per cent in 2001, spot and network television together maintain the primary share of advertising spending. However, its growth has flattened out over the past few years. In some categories it has gained share, particularly from magazines, because advertisers have sought efficient mass audience reach in a recession environment. In fact, most of the advertising growth over the last year has come from local TV news with an increase of over 9 per cent, Hispanic TV with nearly 7 per cent, and Network TV with nearly 6 per cent.

Furthermore, the data shows that newspapers are second to television in terms of ad spending in the media mix but they have seen ad spending decline since mid 2000. The current decline has primarily affected the local newspapers, which have seen some of the biggest swings in ad spending over the last five years. They experienced the highs of the tight job market, increased classified ad spending and are now going through the low.

Online ad dollars have followed in categories transformed by the Internet .The adoption of the online medium has caused some of the most dramatic media consumption and purchasing shifts over the past few years and ad dollars have followed in categories where the purchase process has been transformed by the unique capabilities of the Internet. The publishing and media sector uses the Internet to attract new users to their sites. The sector devoted 15.5 per cent of their total first quarter 2002 spend of $479 million to online advertising.

The results of the study claim that certain key categories are actually spending much more significant portions of their advertising budgets online. The Internet has surpassed other traditional media such as radio, outdoor and is gaining this share from categories where online has become a material purchase or information channel such as retail, travel and employment services.