Forecast Predicts 6.9% Rise in U.S. Ad Spending for ’89

NEW YORK — The outlook for U.S. advertising spending has brightened in the past six months, and spending now is expected to rise 6.9% this year, one of the industry’s most widely followed forecasts said Wednesday.

That still would mean smaller growth than the rises of 7.4% to 7.9% posted in each of the past four years and well below the double-digit increases earlier in the decade. But Robert Coen, director of forecasting for the ad agency McCann-Erickson, said growth should exceed the 6.1% rise that he projected in December for this year because national advertiser spending has surpassed his expectations and the economic climate has improved.