A quick look at each market reveals magazine advertising revenues do not always follow exactly the local GDP growth:

• Australia was mostly flat (-1%). In its fiscal year ending June 30, the local publishing giant, Australian Consolidated Press, managed to increase its revenues by 1.1%. However, the country is now outperforming its trading partners with an annual GDP growth of about 3% and advertising bookings for the end of the year are looking healthy.

• Hong Kong was flat. Publishers are nervous and do not see a recovery before the middle of next year. The economy is close to a recession, the second one in three years.

• Taiwan was the worst affected (- 8% in advertising spending). The third quarter should be the second consecutive period of negative growth. Whereas a full employment economy used to be the model, newspapers and magazine companies have started to lay off staff.

• Singapore is going through a serious contraction of its economy (probably -1% for this year) too vulnerable to the slump in IT exports and a small domestic market.

• Thailand was up (+10%) with some companies growing by 20 or even 30%. Meantime, GDP growth is expected to remain at 1.9%.

• Indonesia and the Philippines were mostly up (although they represent a small portion of the magazine advertising spending in the region).
  

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