The number of ad executives who in spring said their ad budgets would increase over the next six months fell 8 percentage points.

The Media Economy Report from Advertiser Perceptions Inc. reports the number of companies expecting to increase their budgets in six months fell to 33 percent during the April/May period of 2008, down from 41 percent in the spring of 2007.

Newspaper ad budgets expected to decline were 44 percent (compared to 27 percent last year); 33 percent of radio budgets were expected to decline (20 percent last year), while 29 percent of magazine ad budgets were expected to slip (21 percent the previous year). Broadcast TV budgets were expected to slip to the tune of 30 percent (22 percent last year), and 20 percent of cable TV budgets were expected to shrink (11 percent last year). Online, just four percent of budgets were expected to decline, versus 5 percent last spring, reports MediaBuyerPlanner.

That downward trend — which doesn't even take into account the more recent economic trauma — suggests the erosion in advertiser confidence will likely be more pronounced when API begins its fall 2008 survey this week, writes MediaPost.

The U.S. ad economy slipped 1.6 percent in the first half of 2008; the second quarter of the year alone dropped 3.7 percent, and the first month of the third quarter declined even more, according to TNS Media Intelligence.