Advertiser Anxiety is Rising
A truism in the media sector is that economic uncertainty leads marketers to reduce ad spending. And right now, President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and other countries are beginning to make marketers question how much they actually want to spend on advertising in the coming months.
In the past week, four senior ad buyers have told me clients have begun talking with them about the tariffs and the overall economic uncertainty. This chatter also comes as the advertising industry prepares for the annual TV upfront market, where TV and streaming-ad sellers negotiate billions of dollars in ad-spending commitments with ad agencies and marketers. It starts in May.
Related Knowledge Center: State of the business model
The traditional journalism business model has long since collapsed, and news organizations have shrunk or disappeared entirely. While a number of promising experiments are under way, the public has not shown a willingness to buy what news organizations are selling.