Online advertising in Australia passed the $3 billion expenditure mark for the financial year ended June 30 as big brands drop print for digital publications and online.Figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau compiled by PriceWaterhouse Coopers put the value of online ads for the 2011-12 financial year at $3.14 billion, eclipsing the previous record by more than $549 billion.
According to sources print advertising at ACP who have lost more than 40% circulation on several of their publications is down over 40% in some categories.
Editor-in-chief of The Australian, Chris Mitchell, told staff yesterday that market conditions in the past two months had prompted the paper to seek “fewer than 20” redundancies. The newspaper operates a 300-strong newsroom.
“We did not foresee any redundancies on The Australian but advertising conditions have worsened, and we will now be calling for voluntary redundancies from a small number of reporters, artists and sub-editors. In total this will be fewer than 20,” Mr Mitchell said.
According to PWC online advertising is now on track to beat television advertising in the next 12 months, they say in the annual Online Advertising Expenditure Report, launched yesterday.
The latest 21 per cent jump included $47.4 million in mobile advertising, which the IAB reported for the first time.
The report shows total online advertising up 21 percent year on year, with revenues for the financial year reaching $3135.9 million, an increase of $549.1 million (or 21 percent) on the 12 months ended June 30 2011.
IAB said growth over the prior year continued in all categories, with a 30 percent increase in search and directories advertising, 15 percent in general display and 11 percent for classifieds.
Total mobile online advertising for the 12 months was $47.5 million, up 212 percent. In the three months ended June 30 general display advertising on mobile devices accounted for 60.3 percent, while search ads accounted for 39.7 percent.
Some 67.7 percent was on smartphones with the rest on tablets.
For the first time the report included estimates for Google display, video, and mobile advertising as well as Facebook display advertising.
“We expect online advertising will surpass free TV in calendar year 2013 and print in FY2013-14,” said Paul Fisher, CEO of IAB Australia.
