Not unexpected, but bad news nonetheless: GM, the country's fourth-largest advertiser, is cutting its ad budget. The WSJ ($) doesn't have details on the scope of the cuts, but does point out who gets hurt:
- Newspapers
- TV, especially local TV, who get about quarter of their ad revenue from auto makers
- GM's ad agencies: Interpublic Group and Publicis Groupe
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What about Web publishers? Online ad optimists have argued that in a recession, the Web should be ok, because ad buyers will shift their spends from expensive, hard-to-measure old media to cost-effective and precise online buys. We hope they're right, but we think they're wrong -- big ad pullbacks will be felt by everyone with ad inventory to sell.
