• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, November 9, 2007

While economic uncertainty may not have caused a drop in ad spending yet, executives from different corners of the media business expressed concern Thursday. With a recently bearish Wall Street, issues with the housing market and higher gas and energy prices, they said marketers may begin to pull back on spending.

GroupM's North America CEO Marc Goldstein said, "if there were ever a moment in time when advertisers are cautious," it's now. "Cautious is the operative word," he said at Nielsen's and Dow Jones & Co.'s Media And Money conference in New York, adding that advertisers are reexamining how they're apportioning their dollars.

Goldstein said he expected some jitters in categories such as retail and restaurants (both quick-service and casual dining), as gas prices could affect consumer spending.

A lengthy slowdown could cause some marketers to use their options to pull back some of the spending they committed to in the broadcast upfront, although there are no current plans to do so, he said.

In general, a curtailment of ad spending follows an economic slowdown by several months, since many dollars are spent in advance such as in the upfront or the print market.

Also at the "Media and Money" event, private equity investor Steven Rattner said, "I don't know if we're going into a recession or not. We're clearly going into a period of slower growth." And advertising is tied to that economic cycle, he added.

Rattner's Quadrangle Group has holdings in the publisher of Maxim magazine, cable operators and other properties.

Also on Thursday, David Barrett, the CEO of local station group Hearst-Argyle, said on a conference call: "I continue to be concerned by overall weak economic conditions, which ultimately influence advertising spending levels."

Barrett mentioned that the sub-prime lending crisis and its effect on the real estate market "is a national problem, but it's quite acute in certain regions where we have stations." The company runs 29 stations, including four in Florida and three in California.

One contrary voice: Perhaps looking further into the future, Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman at both Viacom and CBS, said advertisers will continue to invest in media companies with attractive marketing platforms.

"Those (media) companies that can offer a portfolio of both traditional and new-media propertie -believe me, they'll prosper," he said at the New York event.

Both Viacom and CBS offer linear networks and a slew of digital outlets.

"Advertising will pave the way," he said via-a-vis a subscription model. "That's true even on the Internet."