A graphic I posted yesterday got a lot of traffic and one pointed question: What would it look like if the decline in first half spending was compared to the first half of 2007.
Here’s the answer: a fragile media economy in the first half of 2008 crashed in the first half of 2009.
Local and specialty were the two biggest losers over the three-year period. The table to the right details the declines, while the chart below starkly illustrates the results.
The final table shows the biggest driver of the decline: a $2.6 billion drop in auto advertising from 2007 to 2009.
If you had a media property wholly reliant on advertising from fast food restaurants, cell phones, department stores, direct response and movies, you had a decent chance of doing OK.
