Media buoyed by advertising lift

By KARYN SCHERER

The newspaper and television industries are crossing their fingers for a bumper year next year, after a big improvement in advertising revenue over the past six months.

Although official figures are still some months away, both forms of media are predicting revenue will be well up this year after a difficult 1998.

The Television Broadcasters' Council, which represents TV One, TV2, TV3, TV4 and Prime, noted yesterday that sales for the last three months of the year were up by 5.5 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The strong upturn follows a 4.6 per cent lift in revenue in the previous quarter and lends weight to suggestions that the economy is beginning to boom.

The council's executive director, Bruce Wallace, described the figures as an "encouraging trend" which appeared to be the result of growth in the economy, strong pre-Christmas retail advertising and election-related advertising.

The newspaper industry pointed out that newspapers had also had a good year.

"If that's the best they can do, I'd be quite disappointed," quipped INL managing director Mike Robson.

The Wellington-based media group owns a slew of metropolitan, provincial and community newspapers across the country.

Mr Robson was reluctant to be specific, but said the group had seen "exceptionally strong" growth in national and brand advertising over the past six months.

"Certainly from INL's point of view, we're seeing a significant recovery across the board and across the country, so we're just hopeful it will continue in that direction."

According to Wilson & Horton, publisher of the NZ Herald, advertising revenue for its flagship newspaper has increased by 12 per cent over the past three months compared with the same time last year. Advertising in its regional newspapers was up by 9 per cent over the same period.

Chief executive John Sanders said the company had noticed a big increase since June.

Mr Sanders said the Herald, in particular, had benefited from a significant boost in employment advertising. "I think it's beyond a general economic improvement. I think we're doing a few things a little better."

The predictions come just a week after another traditional economic indicator, the ANZ Job Ads series, hit a record high.

The bank said last week that employment advertising in November was up by nearly a third over the same time last year.

According to figures compiled by the Advertising Agencies' Association, spending across all forms of media fell last year for the first time since 1991.

Although television recovered after a difficult 1997 to record $473 million in sales, total spending on newspapers, including community newspapers, fell nearly 5 per cent to $543 million.