MEDIA MARKET DATA - World Association of Newspapers

United KingdomThe Financial Times reports that the internet will this year overtake UK national newspapersto become the third biggest advertising medium by spend, according to authoritative forecasts.By the end of 2007, internet advertising will close the gap on regional newspapers, thenumber two medium, but will still be well short of television, the biggest outlet in the £12bna-yearmedia advertising market. The projection, seen exclusively by the FT, underlines thepace of growth in internet advertising and the challenge to businesses reliant on traditionaladvertising revenue. Excluding internet spending, total media advertising would be inrecession with television, national and regional press reporting revenue falls this year, it said.The FT says that the report comes from GroupM, a WPP holding company which drew ondata from the group’s media buyers, MindShare, Media-edge:cia, MediaCom and MAXUS,which buy and plan more than 30 per cent of global media advertising. It estimates theinternet will take 13.3 per cent of the total media advertising market – excluding areas such asdirect mail, public relations and market research – in 2006. National newspapers will take13.2 per cent. http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10006025.shtml;May 29, 2006United States of AmericaThe Newspaper Association of America's "Outlook 2006" forecasts newspaper advertisinggains near 3 percent for print and closer to 4 percent when online is included in 2006. Thisshould be at least a slight improvement from 2005, a year that did not meet most observers’expectations. The full forecast is available on the NAA web site athttp://www.naa.org/Presstime/PTArtPage.cfm?AID=7378; Newsletter for Directors of WANMember Associations - N ° 34 ; February 2, 2006Advertising StatisticsAsiaCompanies spent a record 68.6 billion US dollars in advertisements across the Asia Pacificregion in 2005, an industry report said. Last year's record spending on newspapers, televisionand magazines represented a 15 percent jump from 2004 and was fuelled by growth in ninemarkets, Nielsen Media Research said. "Buoyed by strong growth markets includingAustralia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and China particularly, the overall expenditure in2005 reflects how important this region is becoming as an advertising economy," it said. Thereport singled out the fast growing Indian economy as having tremendous potential for theadvertising sector. "Fuelled by the rapid rise in the retail sector starting mid-2003, the IT(information technology) and real estate boom, the potential for the advertising market issimply huge," said Richard Basil-Jones, the regional managing director at Nielsen MediaResearch. The report tracking 12 economies showed China accounted for 57 percent ofadvertising spending in 2005. South Korea and Australia shared joint second spot at eightpercent, Hong Kong was next at seven percent followed by India and Indonesia at fourpercent each. The Philippines was at three percent, Malaysia and New Zealand eachaccounted for two percent while Singapore and Taiwan were at one percent. AFP; March 28,2006ChinaAfter growing at a breakneck pace for the past decade, the Chinese newspaper industry'sprofits plummeted last year for the first time ever as advertisers cut back or redirected21