Advertising spending decreased 0.3 percent to $72.59 billion versus the same period in 2006 according to TNS Media Intelligence:

Internet display advertising maintained its growth leadership position, registering a 17.7 percent increase to $5.52 billion in expenditures. Consumer magazines posted a 6.9 percent gain to $11.50 billion in advertising. Outdoor expenditures were up 3.6% to $1.90 billion and Cable TV followed with a 2.8 percent increase to $8.38 billion.

Broadcast TV media continued to experience weakness in the second quarter and turned in significant half-year declines. Network TV expenditures fell 3.6 percent to $11.84 billion, while ad spending on Spot TV dropped 5.4 percent to $7.29 billion. Syndication TV was down 5.3 percent to $2.00 billion.

Newspaper and Radio media also saw widening losses during the second quarter. For the half-year period, ad spending in Local Newspapers plunged 5.7 percent to $11.09 billion on a reduction of 4.7 percent in space sold. Marketers lowered their Radio advertising budgets by 2.7 percent, to a total of $5.14 billion.

Alan D. Mutter attributes the decline to fears that the economy is weakening and increased spending on non-traditional media on his Reflections of a Newsosaur blog:

Even though TNS reported that the nation’s top brewers cut their traditional spending by 24%, or $131 million, during the first six months of 2007, “brewers insist they haven't cut [total marketing] spending at all,” reports Jeremy Mullman of Advertising Age, adding that “in many cases [they] have increased it.”

Far from vanishing, “beer bucks are flowing into less-traditional sponsorship and promotional activities that services such as TNS don't pick up on,’’ says Jeremy. “Moreover, as a result of the influx of smaller brands into the big brewers' portfolios, more of their ad budgets are being channeled into local media, which the brewers say TNS doesn't measure, either.”

Instead of buying commercials and print ads, reports Jeremy, brewers nowadays are paying for product placement in entertainment programming (not measured by TNS-type services) and sponsoring promotional events like a bar “Olympics” in Chicago.