Flop of the week: Downward trend halted - 13 percent fewer listings in September

The slump continues, but the downward trend was slowed in September. Advertising revenues in the Swiss press fell by 12.8 percent to 159.4 million francs. From February to August, year-on-year declines of well over 20 percent were recorded in some cases. In the first nine months of 2009, this resulted in a decline of 21.7 percent, according to Wemf AG für Werbemedienforschung. The Sunday press recorded the sharpest drop in September, with revenues falling by 26.3 percent to CHF 15.2 million. The financial and business press lost 13.9 percent to CHF 5.5 million. The daily press lost 12.4 percent to 85.2 million francs. In contrast, the regional weekly press increased its income by 14.7 percent to CHF 4.8 million. The tense situation on the labor market had a particularly noticeable impact on newspaper advertising: Income from job advertisements fell by 47.9 percent to 13 million francs. Property advertisements fell by 20.1 percent. Commercial advertisements fell by 7.8 percent.