考研英语阅读理解之广告业.docVIP

考研英语阅读理解之广告业 When Rupert Murdoch sees beams of light in the American advertising market， it is not necessarily time to reach for the sunglasses. Last October， when the impact of September 11th was only beginning to tell， the boss of NewsCorp， a media group， had already identified “strong rays of sunshine”。 With ad sales still languishing， Mr. Murdoch declared last month that “there are some hints of a modest upswing in the U.S. advertising markets.” His early optimism turned out to be misplaced. Now， however， other industry observers are beginning to agree with him. 　　Advertising usually exaggerates the economic cycle： falling sharply and early in a downturn， and rebounding strongly once the economy has begun to recover. This is because most managers prefer to trim their ad budgets rather than their payrolls， and restore such spending only once they feel sure that things are looking up. Last year， Americas ad market shrank by 9.8%， according to CMR， a research firm. Although ad spending has not yet recovered across all media， some analysts now expect overall ad spending to start to grow in the third quarter. 　　The signs of improvement are patchy， however. Ad spending on radio and television seems to be inching up—advertising on American national radio was up 2% in January on the same period last year， according to Aegis—while spending on magazines and newspapers is still weak. Even within any one market， there are huge differences; just pick up a copy of one of the now-slimline high-tech magazines that once bulged with ads， and compare it with the hefty celebrity or womens titles. Advertisers in some categories， such as the travel industry， are still reluctant to buy space or airtime， while others， such as the car and movie businesses， have been bolder. The winter Olympics， held last month in Salt Lake City， has also distorted the spending on broadcast advertising in the first quarter. Nonetheless， there is an underlying pattern. One measure is the booking of ad spo