Media Sales Today

Much has been made of the daily deal phenomenon as consumers search for ways to save money on everything from massages to laser hair removal. And while digital coupons are growing quickly, most U.S. consumers are still turning to traditional sources for their coupons. Since the recession started, these numbers have skyrocketed.

While nearly one-third of newspaper advertising sales managers say revenues for the first half of 2011 are up over the first half of 2010, they have lowered their projections for the year. These managers are also less optimistic than ad sales managers overall according to a new local ad sales forecast.

More good news on the ad revenue front: If advertisers and marketers do what they say they will, advertising spending should continue to grow this year – and not just in digital and mobile. Just released survey results from Advertiser Perceptions show advertisers and marketers are more optimistic about increasing their ad spending than at any time during the past four years.

In more good news for print media, recent research shows more than 20% of affluent consumers with incomes of at least $500,000 spend 11 hours or more each week reading newspapers. That’s compared to just six percent of the general population.

Consumers use newspapers to plan their shopping, according to a recent NAA report. People use different advertising media for different uses, and these numbers show newspapers continue to be an effective way to reach consumers.

Over 400 local online advertising industry professionals have gathered in Boston this week at Interactive Local Marketing East to learn how quickly the market is changing. BIA Kelsey executives opened the conference by announcing that local interactive advertising which totaled $21.7 billion last year, will climb to $42.5 billion by 2015. At that point, the digital component will comprise 23.6% of local ad spending.

According to recent comScore numbers cited by the Newspaper Association of America, online newspapers are holding their own. An average of 105.3 million people visited a newspaper website in the fourth quarter of 2010, and online newspaper revenues are growing.