Spring fatigue
Advertisement statistics show a massive decline in February
Advertising statistics show massive slump in FebruaryBruno Amstutz Even though the year is still young, the advertising market has not yet managed to recover. The print media in particular are continuing to record huge losses. The main area affected is job advertisements.
However, the specific percentage changes reported in the current Swiss press advertising statistics should be treated with caution. Since the beginning of the year, the data has been collected according to new rules and partially modified definitions. Comparisons with the previous year are only possible to a limited extent.
Newspapers can now also report the advertising volume of their local editions, which should increase the representativeness of the statistics. In addition, daily newspapers are differentiated according to a new circulation key: The smallest category is now daily newspapers with a circulation of up to 20,000 copies. Previously, the limit was 10,000 copies.
In future, commercial advertisements will be differentiated according to the criteria of black and white or four-color, while classified advertisements will be subdivided more than before into the categories of jobs, real estate and other. On this basis, Swiss newspapers are reporting a 17.7 percent decline in the total volume of advertisements. Job advertisements even lost 41.1 percent of their volume.
Once again, the biggest daily newspapers in German-speaking Switzerland suffered the most: They lost a total of 25.4 percent in advertising volume compared to the same month last year, while job advertisements fell by as much as 49.6 percent.
The weekly newspapers only lost 17.8 percent of their advertising volume overall. However, they plunged to sad depths in the job advertisements segment. Overall, they posted a new record loss and reported a 67.2 percent drop in advertising.
In contrast, the declines in free newspapers were downright modest: At minus 2.9 percent overall volume and minus 37.8 percent job advertisements, they are practically the winners of the month.
The Publicitas index for the development of advertising expenditure in the daily press also continued to plummet. In February, it fell by 2.3 points to 121.4 points. The index of job advertisements lost a drastic 14.8 points and now stands at 261.3 points.
However, the specific percentage changes reported in the current Swiss press advertising statistics should be treated with caution. Since the beginning of the year, the data has been collected according to new rules and partially modified definitions. Comparisons with the previous year are only possible to a limited extent.
Newspapers can now also report the advertising volume of their local editions, which should increase the representativeness of the statistics. In addition, daily newspapers are differentiated according to a new circulation key: The smallest category is now daily newspapers with a circulation of up to 20,000 copies. Previously, the limit was 10,000 copies.
In future, commercial advertisements will be differentiated according to the criteria of black and white or four-color, while classified advertisements will be subdivided more than before into the categories of jobs, real estate and other. On this basis, Swiss newspapers are reporting a 17.7 percent decline in the total volume of advertisements. Job advertisements even lost 41.1 percent of their volume.
Once again, the biggest daily newspapers in German-speaking Switzerland suffered the most: They lost a total of 25.4 percent in advertising volume compared to the same month last year, while job advertisements fell by as much as 49.6 percent.
The weekly newspapers only lost 17.8 percent of their advertising volume overall. However, they plunged to sad depths in the job advertisements segment. Overall, they posted a new record loss and reported a 67.2 percent drop in advertising.
In contrast, the declines in free newspapers were downright modest: At minus 2.9 percent overall volume and minus 37.8 percent job advertisements, they are practically the winners of the month.
The Publicitas index for the development of advertising expenditure in the daily press also continued to plummet. In February, it fell by 2.3 points to 121.4 points. The index of job advertisements lost a drastic 14.8 points and now stands at 261.3 points.
