HONG KONG: It had to happen - the print advertising industry has been hit by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus. However, television, which has a higher proportion of less volatile consumer goods ads hasn't been affected as much as newspapers which tend to take more advertising from the sensitive property and financial services sectors.

An AC Nielsen study has confirmed the same. Newspaper ad revenues in April at the height of the SARS outbreak fell 20.8 per cent from March, according to Nielsen data. TV ad revenue held steady, however, over the same period. Overall ad spending fell 9.2 per cent to HK$2.4bil in April.

A Reuters report states that newspaper publishers in Singapore have been badly hit as companies have withdrawn advertising even as consumers stayed away from shopping centres.

Reports indicate that the ad sales of South China Morning Post publisher SCMP Group Ltd plunged 30 per cent in the last month.

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), which publishes The Straits Times, cut its advertising rates by 4 per cent to 9 per cent last month and said yesterday it was reviewing the rates again.

Several financial analysts claim that newspapers had been hurt in particular by a drop in orders from real estate and financial services firms like banks and credit card companies.

Next Media Ltd said ad revenues of its Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s number two newspaper, were down about 20 per cent in April but had rebounded since then and were down only slightly in the first two weeks of May.