• The New York Times, Tuesday, December 4, 2007 12 PM

Although Lee Westerfield feels the ad industry is "tiptoeing toward the edge of recession," he and two other prominent prognosticators believe that the strength of ad spending online--as well as the effects of the elections and the Summer Olympics--should keep the industry from suffering a recession. Westerfield, a senior analyst at BMO Capital Markets, says that ad spending in this country will show 3.6% growth in 2008, compared with the 4.3% he formerly predicted.

Robert J. Coen, senior vice president and director for forecasting at Universal McCann, and Steve King, worldwide CEO at ZenithOptimedia, also reduced their estimates for American ad spending growth yesterday at the opening session of the 35th annual global media and communications conference sponsored by UBS. Last June, Coen predicted spending in 2008 would be 5% higher; yesterday he revised downward to 3.7%.

The U.S. growth in ad spending next year will lag behind the rest of the world, King says, increasing 4.1% from 2007. That estimate includes $2 billion in spending for political ads. King, like Coen and Westerfield, also trimmed his prediction for American growth in 2007 compared with his previous estimates.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »