Department Stores Shift Ad Spending to Electronic Media

Dublin, Ireland, Department stores have begun shifting their ad spending from print to electronic media, according to a report by Research and Markets. In the past four years, department stores have sliced their annual newspaper budgets by nearly $2 billion, or 24%, shifting more dollars to electronic media—television, radio and the Internet—and to direct mail.

The report says that newspapers, with their strong local Web sites, are well positioned to pick up some of the loss. Department stores intend to increase their on-line ad spending by more than 80% between now and 2009, according to Research and Markets.