• by Wayne Friedman , July 16, 2012

Local digital media revenues will climb at a modest double-digit rate this year -- with online video and mobile search two of the biggest gainers.  Overall, BIA/Kelsey's report expects all local media to hit $133 billion in 2012 -- as per its March report -- down from a $136 billion estimate.

Going forward over the next four years, the media researcher expects online revenues from newspapers to grow at 5% per year in revenues on average; for radio, this comes to 11.8%; TV, 12.8%; digital out of home, 11.7%; original online, 9.4%; mobile, 44.9%; Internet Yellow Pages, 12.5%; email, reputation and presence management,14.9%; social media, 21%; and online video, 36.7%.

BIA/Kelsey says advertising revenues from all local interactive and digital will grow 13% in 2012. In March, BIA/Kelsey forecast that local digital revenues would climb to $38 billion in 2016 from the $21 billion in 2011.

For this year, top performers will include mobile search growing 77.2%; online video up 51.6%; and social media 26.3% higher. The report says for some media -- particularly newspapers -- digital ad revenues will be the only source of growth.

Mark Fratrik, vice president and chief economist, BIA/Kelsey, stated: "As businesses examine their advertising opportunities, the trend is moving toward building a coordinated ad plan across different platforms, with different messages across different media."