U.S. total ad spend declined 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the year-earlier period, with the Top 3 U.S. advertisers among those cutting spending the most, according TNS Media Intelligence estimates, writes MarketingCharts (via MediaPost).

Top-ranked advertiser Procter & Gamble reduced ad spend 8.6 percent, to $722.7 million. In second place, AT&T cut ad spend 19.2 percent; third-place General Motors slashed ad spend 30.9 percent, TNS said.

In the Top 10, only fourth-place Verizon, fifth-place Ford and eighth-place Sprint Nextel upped spend - 5.9 percent, 3.0 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively - according to TNS.

Only six of the 19 measured media registered year-over-year gains in the first quarter, TNS said. Among major media:

• Online display advertising spend grew 16.7 percent, to $2.7 billion.
• Consumer magazines advanced 7.1 percent to $5.17 billion.
• Cable Network expenditures were up 6.3 percent to $3.82 billion.
• Network TV ad spending tumbled 7.2 percent to $6.05 billion
• Spot TV expenditures slipped 4.1 percent to $3.74 billion.
• Expenditures for Local Newspapers fell 4.6 percent to $5.39 billion
• Radio spending declined 2.1 percent to $2.29 billion.

Internet display advertising surged to 7.7 percent of total expenditures, up from 6.6 percent a year ago. Magazines gained 0.9 share points and finished the period at 19.2 percent of ad spending, swapping places in the rankings with Newspapers, which lost 0.8 points. Television lost 1.1 share points but still accounted for 44.6 percent of all expenditures.

MarketingCharts provides more data and tables here.