The news from TNS Media Intellegince is both sobering and disturbing. Overall ad spending for the first three months of 2009 was down 14.2% from the same time last year. Newspaper and radio advertising has taken the biggest hit. Overall, radio ad sales free-fell 26.2% from the same time in 2008, with local radio sales down 26.8%, and national radio sales down a staggering 31.7%, by far the worst overall performer in the entire media sector. The main reason – business spending. The TNS report says automobile dealership ad spending is down 49%, both financial services & retail down 18%, and travel & tourism ad spending is down 14% from the same time last year. Jon Swallen, SVP Research at TNS Media Intelligence says “While there are hopeful signs of general economic indicators bottoming out, the advertising sector still appears to be lagging behind.” He adds that early 2nd quarter stats aren’t showing any improvement. You can read the entire report here.