Online advertising tough completion for regional press

Regional publishers have reported steep downturns in advertising revenues as the internet continues to pick up momentum in 2008.

According to a new report from media research company Enders Analysis, print advertising could drop by £250 million (nine per cent) to £2.5 billion if the trend continues throughout 2008, the lowest in a decade.

While much of the decline in regional advertising is due to the economic downturn, it is unlikely that this lost spend will return to regional publishers when the market becomes more buoyant, as more and more advertising becomes focused online.

The Telegraph reports that Douglas McCabe, author of the report, said: "It´s a one-way street, that money is simply leaving the sector as a whole and will never return."

The report revealed that the problem is further exacerbated by the fact that specialist websites for property, cars and recruitment are dominating the market for online classifieds, meaning that 2008 could be the "year of no return" for regional publishers.

While the internet currently dominates the advertising space, experts are predicting that mobile TV advertising will become a major channel over the next four years, accounting for £1.23 billion of spending up to 2012, according to a Screen Digest report.