Ad Influx Brightens Hopes For Newspapers, Magazines

A year-end flurry of ad spending helped moderate steep declines at some newspapers and magazines, and fueled an uptick at others, raising hopes for a recovery in 2010. Still, following a brutal 2009, when scores of publications closed or made drastic cutbacks, publishers remain wary of declaring an ad rebound as marketers selectively reopen their wallets. Publishing executives attribute the recent influx of ad money in part to marketers hurrying to spend the remainder of their annual ad budgets after doling out those funds sparingly earlier in the year amid fears of an economic collapse. Auto makers, particularly General Motors Co., which spent part of the year in government-sanctioned bankruptcy proceedings, also have ramped up marketing after months of spending almost nothing to promote their cars.