In response to a growing number of requests from clients for information regarding current media trends and how they will affect their measurement, we have compiled some top-line statistics concerning audience and advertising data which are available for download by clicking on the image below:

Overview

The figures deliver some stark findings, particularly in relation to advertising, with falls in advertising revenue across most media types.

Given the ongoing debate regarding the use of advertising to calculate the ‘value’ of PR, how will this affect those organisations that use AVE’s?

The short answer is that AVE figures are declining in value so as advertising rates come down the same article in the same location will be ‘worth’ less this year than last. Of course its real value in terms of changing hearts and minds and driving business outcomes may well be unchanged.

This begs the question, how much sense does it make to benchmark PR with advertising when we are entering a recession, given how adversely advertising can be affected? In 1991 for example, UK advertising revenue fell 5%.

As Kristin Wadge recently posted, by employing more appropriate metrics (i.e. not AVEs), it is possible to demonstrate (in meaningful ways) how cost-effective PR is and how it delivers genuine ROI. Indeed, although total marketing spend is likely to decline, there is a massive opportunity for PR to increase its share of the pie as other forms of marketing struggle to prove their worth. In September’s edition of Admap, WPP media investment company GroupM predicted a 4% growth in PR investment over 2008, while traditional media advertising is expected to fall by almost 3%.

Print media – latest figures

• Circulation figures for national newspapers have fallen by 30% over the last 20 years with consequent reduction in advertising revenue

• Only the Financial Times and the Sun have bucked this trend in the last year, with both holding pretty steady

• The FT has done well out of the global financial crisis while the Sun has been aggressively cutting its prices in order to win readers

• The Guardian has joined the Daily Telegraph and the Independent in actually raising their cover prices in a desperate attempt to retain income

• According to the Quarterly Survey of Advertising Expenditure, adspend in business and professional magazines has dropped 4.8% in the 12 months to June 2008 while consumer magazines fell 2.1% over the same period

• Although many print titles are struggling, it is premature to declare the death of print. The growth of free newspapers has meant that the total worldwide newspaper circulation actually increased by 3.65% in 2007 (World Association of Newspapers)

TV – latest figures

• Audience figures for the five main ‘terrestrial’ channels have fallen by 25% over the last decade with BBC1 and ITV being the strongest hit

• Mainstream audiences have fallen with the take-up of digital TV – satellite revenue experienced an increase of 9% over the last year

• Falling audiences, combined with a reduction of the average CPT (cost per thousand) advertising rate has resulted in the total advertising revenue for ITV being slashed by almost half in real terms since the turn of the millennium.

WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, told an industry audience in London last week that traditional broadcasting companies like ITV operating in one media, in one country would struggle in the future. ITV’s managing director of brand and commercial Rupert Howell responded to this on the BBC’s media show, by arguing that TV advertising is becoming more cost effective. He stated that current rates are equivalent to what they where in 1992, taking inflation into account. However media consultant Matthew Horsman commented that ITV was being affected by the old adage “the money will go where the eyeballs go”.

Online – latest figures

• Although online advertising expenditure has been increasing at an exponential rate over the last decade, even it is not immune from the worsening economy with a 4% fall in revenue in the second quarter of 2008

• Matthew Horsman, again speaking on the Media Show, commented that there is a common misconception about the growth of online advertising - he mentioned that while online search has increased dramatically, online display advertising has been pretty flat recently

• Online AVE figures are more closely linked with display advertising rather than search.  Since the cost per user has been static, the total cost is therefore dependent on the number of unique users. As has been posted on Measurement Matters a number of times, the real number of people seeing a particular webpage is up for debate and almost certainly a lot less than many people think.  The result of this is that online AVE's are likely to decline as the traffic figures catch up with reality.

So these are the trends up until now, but what about the future. Metrica’s Paul Kennedy has set up a poll so that you can have your say about the future of media with regards to news consumption, it would be great if you could vote.