It’s only one council (Manchester) but the direction of travel is clear.
Figures revealed under the Freedom of Information Act show the extent of the drop in council spending on advertising in newspapers over the past three years.
The data shows;
* Trinity Mirror newspapers (MEN and associated weeklies) saw a less steep drop in revenue than the national press and took the lion’s share of the spend with £581,965.81 in 2009/10.
* Just two areas of advertising saw increased budgets over the period – outdoor advertising (billboards etc.) almost doubled from £65,096.04 in 2007/8 to £128, 427.33 in 2009/10 and digital advertising got a budget of £4,655 in the last year after previously having none.
* Online only recruitment advertising dropped to zero in 2009/10.
The full data set for this visualisation of advertising spend in £ is available here.
The figures were obtained by campaigner Zahid Hussain who is seeking to establish how decisions on advertising are made by the council. He has since submitted a further request for information .
Dim Sum Digital 