Locally Grown: New Forecast Showing Local Advertising Revenue Boom

Publishers banking on local ad revenue have good news as we settle into Q2, with revised 2026 projections showing 8.1% YoY growth to a total of $184.5 billion.

“The increase over the prior estimate of $181.7 billion is driven by stronger-than-expected performance in mobile (particularly social), video, and streaming, political ad spend, and advertising technology,” says last month’s BIA Advisory Services press release.

(Source: BIA Advisory Services)

The revised forecast has traditional media accounting for 43.6% and $80.4 billion of the total local ad revenue (up 6.5% and nearly $5 billion from last year), and digital media making up 56.4% and $104.1 billion of the total (up 9.3% and nearly $9 billion).

And while print publishers still face what BIA calls “long-term declines,” other legacy formats are “evolving,” adopting full-funnel strategies and combining other data-driven channels.

With growth happening locally and close to home, it’s time all publishers embrace that evolution.

“Overall, the local advertising market is not contracting; it is transforming,” says Senan Mele, BIA’s VP of Forecasting and Data Analysis. “The most successful media companies will be those that can combine local audience scale with targeting, optimization, and measurement to capture both cyclical political spending and ongoing demand from growth-oriented verticals.”

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FAST FAQ

What does this mean for publishers wanting to capture more local ad revenue? 

This forecast highlights that the winners will be media companies that combine local audience scale with optimization and measurement infrastructure. Publishers should focus on three core priorities:

1. Building scalable local audience reach.
2. Adopting targeting and measurement tools — such as those in Magazine Manager’s unified platform — that let them compete for performance-oriented advertisers.
3. Positioning themselves to capture cyclical ad spend when possible.