Digital ad spending to overtake print

Global digital advertising spend will outstrip newspapers’ print revenues for the first time next year, according to forecasts from Aegis Group’s media agency, leaving traditional publications scrambling for growth.

In its first forecasts for 2013, Aegis Group’s Carat predicts the global advertising market, for digital and print combined, will grow by 5.8 percent next year, only just below the 6 percent forecast for 2012. Globally, television is expected to continue robust growth, up by 5.5 per cent this year and 5.3 percent next. But most of the media industry’s growth lies in digital, with Carat forecasting a rise in clients’ spending of 16.5 per cent in 2012 and 13.5 per cent in 2013, taking its total share of ad budgets to 15.5 per cent next year. That is ahead of newspapers’ 14.3 percent share for 2013, but still far behind TV, steady at 45.7 percent.