Listless March

Commercial advertising was caught on the wrong footIn March, the Publicitas index of advertising expenditure in the Swiss daily press rose by just 0.1 points. According to the latest statistics from the Swiss Advertising Federation (VSWI), all print media categories even slipped into negative territory in the commercial advertising sector, with the trend in advertising volumes deteriorating again in March compared to February, which was also not an exhilarating month. The newspaper category was down 6.3% in terms of commercial advertising, with all three parts of the country posting similarly negative results. However, thanks to job advertisements, which also grew at a slower rate of 16.8 percent, the overall result for newspapers was cushioned to minus 1.3 percent. Weekly newspapers, which have usually achieved excellent results in the past, also fell by 4.1 percent in German-speaking Switzerland due to an almost 25 percent drop in job advertisements.
Advertisers (minus 3.4 percent) and the agricultural press (minus 9.6 percent) also saw a decline in commercial advertising. And even magazines lagged behind with a drop of 3.4 percent, although the decline was mainly attributable to German-speaking Switzerland.
The Publicitas index of advertising expenditure in the daily press grew by just 0.1 points in March. According to Publicitas, there was a lack of income from political campaigns, but advertisements from the real estate sector also fell significantly once again. However, in view of the only slight increase, Publicitas rightly points out that the base from which the increase is calculated has already reached a very high level due to the previous climbs. Daniel Schifferle