According to the latest Global Advertising Forecast from market research firm Strategy Analytics, print advertising is this year expected to grow by 0.5%, accounting for a 26.4% share.

This increase drops to 0.3% within the context of the UK advertising market and further still, to 0.1%, as part of the Europe-wide spend on advertising.

Despite minor increases in print spend predicted over 2012, Stategy Analytics director of digital media strategies Ed Barton warned that only the most optimistic would anticipate further growth in 2013 onwards.

"When you are looking at print, it is currently a case of how far it can deteriorate before it stabilises and that's the unknown at present," he said.

Barton added: "It is no secret that online classifieds have ripped the heart out of print advertising within newspapers and magazines. When you look at newspapers, the major adverts are driven by the major retail businesses.

"If we get to the point where those parties start to focus their advertising spend elsewhere, it becomes a very serious issue."
   
Total UK advertising spending is expected to increase by 4.2% this year to $20.9bn (£13.2bn) - a significant improvement from the 1.4% growth recorded in 2011. This is a marked increase on the European growth which is expected to experience a 3.7% hike to $136.3bn in 2012.

According to Barton, major events such as the London 2012 Olympics, Euro 2012 and the US presidential election campaigns are all contributing to the increased spend.

This, however, will not impact on the global spend on print going forward. Online advertising is expected to globally grow 12.8% to $83.2bn in 2012, which accounts for 18% of the global advertising spend.

"Online advertising will continue along its growth trajectory fuelled by strong growth in emerging markets and increased spending volumes on social networking and online video advertising," said Barton.

In the UK, online will grow by 10.6% to $7.6bn. Barton said the UK was "way ahead" in terms of the share of spending generated by online.

"Furthermore, advertising spend on online has already overtaken print in the UK and is expected to do so in Europe and globally in 2017," he added.