Flop of the week: Advertising revenues on a rapid decline

Advertising revenue for the Swiss press fell by 28.6% compared to the same month last year. In March, the decline amounted to 16.6 percent. Advertisements worth CHF 145 million were placed in April, according to Wemf. It should be noted that the daily newspapers published two fewer editions than in 2008 due to the Easter holidays. 14.3 million francs of this was accounted for by job advertisements, which fell by 53.2 percent year-on-year. Commercial advertising fell by 26.1 percent to 114.1 million. The financial and business press had to cope with a drop of 42.9 percent to 4.7 million. Revenues in the Sunday press fell by 30.1 percent to 14.5 million. The daily press recorded a drop of 29.5 percent to CHF 79.8 million. The specialty press (-28.8 percent to 15.6 million), the general press (-23.3 percent to 21.1 million) and the trade press (-21.9 percent to 5 million) fared no better. The regional weekly press got off relatively lightly (-16.6 percent to 4.3 million). The only increase was recorded in brochure inserts (+3.9 percent).