Merrill Lynch securities analyst Lauren Rich Fine, in a research note issued this morning, lowered the firm's ad-spending growth estimates for 2005, from its previous estimate of 3.7 percent to 3.2
percent. Additionally, Merrill's 2006 estimate has been revised downward as well. Officially, it now sees ad growth next year coming in at 4.5 percent, while it has earlier had predicted a figure of
5.2 percent. The revisions in Merrill's estimates are even worse than they immediately appear. If direct mail is factored out of the estimates, the growth rate for major media this year will have been
only 2.3 percent.
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