Tough ad market for Fox Business Network

Jonathan Berr writes on BloggingStocks.com that the Fox Business Network launch will have to swim upstream against a tough advertising market.

Berr wrote, “The thing that baffles me about Fox Business Network is the timing. Advertising is one of the first areas that gets hit during economic slowdowns. I wonder whether the advertisers who flocked to Fox Business when it launched will be there at the start of next year when the novelty has worn off. The overall advertising environment remains problematic.

“Spending fell 0.3% to $72.59 billion in the first half of the year, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Cable TV spending rose 2.8%, while broadcast TV spending and spot TV spending dropped 3.6% and 5.4% respectively. Spending by financial services firms, a key advertiser for the business media, rose 3.5% to $4.49 billion. But given the turmoil on Wall Street because of the subprime mortgage meltdown, a cutback in advertising by these firms seems pretty likely.

“The bigger, established news outlets will do just fine since they get their fair share of advertising from non-financial companies. But newer outlets like Fox Business and Portfolio.com have a tougher slog ahead because they lack a long track record with advertisers. These challenges, though, don’t seem to be dissuading Slate.com from launching a new business site.”

Read more here.