With just a fortnight to go, the great Olympics advertising bonanza has so far failed to materialise.
Several media buyers have cut their forecasts for ad growth and now say it will be flat at best in the third quarter and might even turn negative — especially in TV. It’s not only the weak economy but also the fact that those brands which are not Olympic sponsors have cut spending during the Games and Paralympics. Media buyers are now looking to the fourth quarter in the hope that non-Olympic brands will return. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s quarterly Bellwether survey, out tomorrow, will offer some hard data about the ad market.
* Mystery continues to surround the identity of the supposed fourth candidate in the last round of interviews for BBC director-general, amid doubts about whether there even was a fourth contender. Only three finalists are known: George Entwistle, who got the job, fellow BBC executive Caroline Thomson, and Ofcom’s Ed Richards. Financial Times editor Lionel Barber was a rumoured contender but his paper says talk that he was interviewed by the BBC is “incorrect”. Observers remain intrigued that, alone among all the serious papers, the FT hasn’t run a leader about Entwistle’s appointment.
* If Barclays chairman and BBC independent director Marcus Agius needs advice at this time of crisis, perhaps he should ask James Murdoch. The News Corp number three, who presided over the News of the World’s closure last July and faced a grilling by MPs, knows Agius well as they are trustees of the Kew Gardens Foundation, which the Barclays man chairs. Agius may discover that, like Murdoch, it’s one of the few roles he’s likely to keep.
* Guardian staff will learn next Tuesday how deep the jobs axe will fall when bosses brief staff about the extent of annual losses.
* How do you congratulate one of your top weekly columnists, who has just been awarded a prestigious prize? If you’re the Daily Telegraph’s City pages and it’s Roger Bootle of Capital Economics, winner of the £250,000 Wolfson Prize last week, you re-print his column from two weeks ago in his regular Monday slot. That was what the Telegraph did. The clue it was a blunder came in the opening line: “Another week, another summit”.
