According to new data gathered by Standard Media Index (via Mumbrella), magazines and traditional print media lost a combined combined $130m in media agency ad revenue during the 2016-2017 financial year.
Broken down, newspaper ad spend is said to have declined 18.4% to $448.59m for the financial year.
Magazine fared a little better, falling only 15.6% to $158.84m.
As you can see from the chart below, digital commanded most the growth here. The fastest-growing slice of the ad-spent during the period delivered growth of 8.1% to reach $1.889 billion.
Speaking to Mumbrella, SMI Australia and New Zealand managing director Jane Schulze observed that “the market was stronger in the first half of the financial year, with total ad spend up 1.2% to $3.7 billion, but suffered in the second half due to the backdrop of huge federal election ad spend at the same time in 2016, which saw ad spend decline by 1.6%.”
“Federal elections are like Olympic broadcasts from an advertising revenue perspective and are absolutely abnormal events, however the underlying result and the longer-term trends show that Australia’s Agency advertising market is set to deliver its fifth consecutive year of record financial year ad spend which underscores the strength of our market.”