The chief executive of Maiden Group, the outdoor advertising firm, today said the terrorist attacks in the US should not disguise the fact that many media companies were heading for a prolonged advertising downturn anyway.

Ron Zeghibe said the tragedy in New York at least allowed UK media groups to be completely honest about their earnings prospects.

"It has provided the cover for companies to release the information that they had wanted to get out all along. A lot of people had visibility on advertising, but what they saw was so ugly they did not want to talk about it," he said.

Media companies in the US and Europe have issued earnings warnings following the attacks, signalling that the advertising slowdown will continue well into next year.

But economic figures released in early September, including unemployment totals in the US and growth rates for the Japanese economy, indicated that a global recession was on the way regardless.

Mr Zeghibe promised Maiden would outperform its peers despite issuing a profit warning earlier today.

"We will outperform the cycle, even though we cannot say what the cycle will be like," he said.

He said the group would continue to grow revenues at a faster pace than its outdoor competitors, which are in turn outperforming the TV, radio and print sectors.

The outdoor sector grew by 3% this year, while Maiden's revenues for the first half of the year rose by 8%, according to first half results released this morning.

However, the group admitted it would not be able to match last year's record annual pre-tax profits of £13m, because bookings for October and November had been weak even before the New York attacks.

"October and November are the biggest selling months of the year normally. If you lose it there, you really lose a chance to make a lot of money," he said.