Joan Warner, CEO of Commercial Radio Australia, has indicated that the latest figures released by the Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia (CEASA) show radio ad spend is weathering the GFC better than other traditional media.

CEASA’s ‘Advertising Expenditure in Main Media’ report for the six months ending in June 2009, shows ad expenditure in Australia has fallen 8.5% compared to the same timeframe in 2008.

It also shows that total advertising expenditure (excluding classified directories) grew around 6%.

The CEASA report showed some bad news in terms of overall ad expenditure – radio (regional and metropolitan) fell about 7.4% to $449.7 million. In comparison, newspapers fell 18%, magazines fell 9.3%, television fell 10.7%, outdoor fell 13.4% and cinema was down 4.2%. Online grew 12% in the same time period.

Radio and online were the only media to gain share in total advertising expenditure.

Warner suggested that the switch on of digital radio over the past few months around Australia should help in attracting new advertising opportunities for radio in the future.

“These are tough times with ad expenditure down overall by a significant amount. The radio industry is working hard to promote its strengths,” Warner said.