The new economy publishing industry is still feeling the effects of the dot.com implosion. Publications such as Business 2.0 (down 97 percent and now folded into Time's eCompany Now), The Industry Standard (down 90 percent and now out of print), and Fast Company (down 80 percent) had enormous ad page counts a year ago, sending the numbers soaring for the technology sector.

Some bright spots in an otherwise gloomy picture included healthy page increases for Laser Focus World, up 16 percent to 517, Lightwave up 19 percent to 515 pages, and Fiberoptic Product News up 33 percent to 362 ad pages.

The top 10 publications ranked on ad spending in technology advertising declined a staggering 47 percent in ad pages and 44 percent in revenues in the third quarter. Top-ranked The Wall Street Journal lost 61 percent of its ad pages, Business Week was down 55 percent, and third place PC Magazine dropped 20 percent. Fourth place Information Week, with the highest ad page count at 736, slid 48 percent compared to third quarter 2000.

Top 10 Publications: Third Quarter 2000 vs 2001

Microsoft was the top technology ad spender, running in 84 publications in the third quarter, but not in another 94 titles in which the company advertised in 2000. Nevertheless, Microsoft's expenditure increased 121% to $33 million, a large portion of which went to Time, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal. Other advertisers in the top ten that increased spending were Fujitsu, Toshiba Corp. and SAP America. Second-ranked IBM decreased spending by 19 percent to $27 million and third place Hewlett-Packard dropped 16 percent to $18.4 million.

Top 10 Ad Spenders: Third Quarter 2000 vs 2001

About CMR's Adscope division
Adscope, headquartered in Eugene, Oregon, is a premier ad tracking service geared toward the high-tech publications industry. Serving numerous magazine advertisers, publishers and ad agencies worldwide since 1981, Adscope tracks over 360,000 ads and nearly $7 billion in competitive advertising expenditures annually. CMR/Taylor Nelson Sofres acquired Adscope in May 2001. For further information, visit www.adscope.com.

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 900,000 brands across 15 media. CMR is headquartered in New York City and maintains sales locations in major markets throughout the United States. For further information, visit http://www.cmr.com.

EDITOR'S NOTE: CMR Adscope's Third Quarter 2001 Advertising Spending by Industry Category available upon request.