Hardest Hit Branch of Russian Economy is Advertising and Its Decline May Kill Newspapers Not Tied to Government

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 26 – The crippling impact of the economic crisis in Russia on airlines and tourist businesses has attracted enormous attention, but advertising has suffered a much greater decline in the last few weeks. Part of the market is already dead, and the rest is undergoing radical change.

            This is all the more dramatic, URA journalist Tatyana Zhatkina says, because only a few months ago, analysts were predicting strong growth in this area. Now, the numbers coming in suggest that this sector will suffer far more than it did after the 2008 and 2014 downturns (ura.news/articles/1036279921).

            The collapse in spending on advertising, Dmitry Kovalyev, a political analyst says, will have a serious negative impact on local media in the regions which in many cases can only publish because of the advertising money they take in.  They already face many problems; this may kill off a large number of them.

            The situation and its impact on publications is somewhat less dire in Moscow, advertising executive Dmitry Tyukhtin says, because there are more firms and a larger market. But even there a serious decline in the advertising sector will hurt not only those in it but those in the media dependent on it.