According to BIA/Kelsey, local advertising spend continues to shift to digital and to decline overall in gross revenue generated.
Total local advertising spend in 2008 was $155.3 billion; in February 2009, Kelsey projected that it would be only $144.4 billion by 2013. BIA/Kelsey defines local advertising as ad spending by small and medium-sized businesses, national advertisers and regional advertisers making local buys.
In August, BIA/Kelsey reported that digital and online's share of local advertising in actual dollar terms had jumped from 22% in 2008 to 37% in 2009.
The number of local advertisers using digital or online as part of their advertising mix continues to increase. That number increased from 73% in August 2008 to 77% in 2009. The number of local advertisers using traditional media declined from 74% to 69%.
The June LinkedIn-Harris Interactive poll of advertisers that use the Internet confirmed these trends. The traditional segment of advertising includes newspapers, magazines, direct mail, network and cable television, radio, and print Yellow Pages.
According to the Harris Internative poll, 54% of advertisers that spend money online say they do so as part of a broader, multimedia campaign strategy.
Still photographers should recognize that there is a trend to rapidly move away from print advertising toward digital. Since the need for still photographs -- both for editorial and advertising -- is entirely dependent on the amount of ad dollars being spent to fund the various products (newspapers, magazines, direct mail, the decline in ad spent means an overall decline in the need for still pictures for print.
The hope is that as digital use increases, more pictures will be needed online. But the prices being paid to use pictures online are dramatically less than what has been paid in the past for print. Therefore, unless the increased use of low priced pictures online is enough to offset the lower prices being paid, photographers can expect to see a decline in overall revenue.
The downward trends in overall advertising spend would seem to indicate that the revenue generated from online use will not be off-setting.