Financial news demand hasn't translated into more ads

Eric Pfanner of the International Herald-Tribune writes Sunday that the demand for financial news in recent months due to the economic turmoil hasn’t resulted in an increase in advertising in these media outlets.

Pfanner writes, “Michael Rooney, chief revenue officer of the Dow Jones consumer media group, which includes The Wall Street Journal, said newsstands in October were regularly reporting an unusual phenomenon for newspapers these days: sellouts.

“‘My kids keep telling me that nobody’s reading newspapers anymore, so I had a great argument at the dinner table,’ he said. Persuading the Rooney family is one thing. Convincing advertisers to keep up their spending during the downturn may be another.

“Like other media executives, Rooney said he had unusually limited ‘visibility’ about the prospects for ad revenue. Banks have cut back after a small burst of activity in September and October, he said, when many aimed to reassure depositors that their money was safe. Watchmakers and other luxury marketers have not even confirmed their spending levels for the holiday season, something that ordinarily would have happened more than a month ago, Rooney said.

“With advertising harder to come by, financial publishers are going directly to their readers for revenue. That is a reversal from the trend of recent years, in which more and more kinds of media content was made available free, supported by advertising.”

Read more here.