Online Ads Booming as Traditional Outlets Suffer
Maybe if you build it they will come...as WSJ Online [PREMIUM] reports that major media players are suffering great softness in their traditional advertising bases, Silicon.com reports that online ads are growing strongly in European markets, paralleling similar online ad growth reported recently in U.S. markets. With the generally weak global economy, print is a luxury that fewer can afford on a regular basis, wheras the typical consumer's online investments are relatively fixed assets that can deliver new information and experiences without having to truck down to the local newsstand, and viewed increasingly as essential to both personal goals and professional goals such as job searching. Print will continue to provide a very valuable, portable and persistent advertising medium, but our latest economic downturn may have marked the turning point of print being thought of as the leading advertising medium. Online advertising is still a nascent and primitive art for the most part, but its potential to drive both personal and professional content and services is beginning to ascend to a leading position in driving content economics.