CMR estimates that total ad spending for 2001 came in at $94.3 billion, compared to $104.5 billion for the same time frame in 2000. In the economically unstable year of 2001, ad spending significantly dropped in revenues across the majority of measured media. National newspapers and national spot radio saw the sharpest decline in ad revenues, dropping 23 and 20.5 percent respectively from a year ago. Print media also saw a significant drop in revenue. Magazine ad revenue fell 7.7 percent, and Sunday and daily newspapers dropped 7.6 and 6.3 percent respectively. Television was not excluded from 2001's budget cuts, with network TV down 8.1 percent and spot TV down 18.2 percent. The only bright spot for 2001 continued to be cable television, which saw a modest ad revenue increase of 1 percent over 2000.

"Looking back, 2001 was an extraordinary year for the advertising industry — the downward turn in the economy, budget cuts, agency consolidations and the tremendous cuts in television advertising in the days following September 11," said David Peeler, president and CEO of CMR. "Because 2000 was such a banner year in ad spending for advertisers, agencies and the media, a fair year-over-year comparison cannot be drawn for total 2001 spending. If 2000's robust total revenues were excluded, and 2001 were measured against 1999, spending would be down only 2.4 percent. That seems to be a better assessment of our year than the 9.8 percent decline between 2000 and 2001."

Ad Spending by Media: Full Year 2000 vs. 2001

Top Ten Ad Spenders: Full Year 2000 vs. 2001

Making its debut on the top ten advertisers list for 2001 was Verizon Communications, the world's leading communications provider. Compared to 2000, Verizon increased their spending by 13.6 percent, bringing its full year total to $843 million. However, other top advertisers continued to slash ad budgets throughout the course of 2001. General Motors reduced their total year spending by 25.4 percent, from $2.9 billion down to $2.2 billion. Philip Morris also trimmed their ad spending by 23.4 percent for 2001.

About CMR
TNS Media Intelligence/CMR, offers strategic advertising and marketing communications information to advertising agencies, advertisers, broadcasters and publishers. The company's tracking technologies collect occurrence and expenditure data, as well as the creative executions of over one million brands across 15 media. CMR is headquartered in New York City and maintains sales locations in major markets throughout the United States.

Within the TNS organization, CMR stands as a key member of TNS Media Intelligence. This group, dedicated to worldwide media analysis, provides advertising expenditure tracking, evaluation and consultative services for broadcast, Internet and print media, in addition to news monitoring capabilities. TNS Media Intelligence is the market leader in the U.S. and France, with significant operations in Europe and Asia. For further information, visit http://www.cmr.com.

Through its network of offices in more than 50 countries, Taylor Nelson Sofres provides marketing information services to leading national and multi-national companies operating in over 80 countries. It is ranked as the fourth largest marketing information group in the world. Further information on Taylor Nelson Sofres is available from the corporate Web site: http://www.tnsofres.com.

¹ Figures are based on CMR's Stradegy2 multimedia ad expenditure database.

Editor's Note: Full Year 2001 Advertising Spending By Industry Category available upon request.