City administration strips Nevsky of advertising banners

Until last week, Nevsky Prospekt between the Moscow Station and the Admiralty was home to 19 advertising banners belonging to two companies. Market participants say it costs about $6,000 per month to rent one banner.

Outdoor advertising has long been a thorn in City Hall's side. "It's sickening to see what they've turned the city into," Governor Valentina Matviyenko said at one of the first city government meetings after her election.

Alla Manilova, chairwoman of the city's committee on the press, said the removal of the banners is part of a new city policy to preserve the unique historic and cultural heritage of St. Petersburg.

Nikolai Cherepennikov, commercial director of the Poster agency, a local advertising media company, said yearly revenues of the banners on Nevsky Prospekt were around $1 million, which means the advertising market as a whole lost about 20 percent of its revenues. But Cherepennikov said advertisers often purchased several banners in different parts of the city on the condition that at least one of them would be on Nevsky.

Manilova told the advertising center to draft a plan to compensate existing advertisers within two weeks of the resolution. She did not say what locations would be proposed as alternatives.

News source: www.sptimes.ru