November 12, 2008 -- The U.S. advertising industry may not recover quite as quickly as the rest of the economy "if businesses wait for the economy to bounce back before boosting marketing spending," according to a new report filed by Citigroup, as reported by Bloomberg.

Ad spending across all media, including print, broadcast and the Internet, may fall 1.8% this year and 3.6% in 2009.  Citigroup had originally projected growth of 0.2% in 2008 and a decline of 0.3% next year.  The Citigroup analysts believe U.S. advertising spending will see the first back-to-back annual declines since at least the 1950s.

Newspapers are predicted to experience the biggest ad drop, down 16.3% in 2008 and 12.5% in 2009.  Internet spending growth, projected at 11.4% for 2008, could slow to 5.8%  in 2009, according to the report. Search-based ads and digital video are reported among the few bright spots in online advertising.  According to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, the U.S. economy will probably  grow 1.6% this year and 1.1% next year.