Rumors about online advertisings death . . .

As an article in today's New York Times points out, online ad spending -- at least at Yahoo! [yeah, I know they don't use it much anymore, but I like the slammer!] -- went up.

"Yahoo, the big Internet portal, said its revenue from online advertising, its largest business line, was $1.2 billion in 2003, up 84 percent. That exceeded the expected ad sales for America Online, which has led online advertising since the dawn of the commercial Internet. This year, AOL's ad revenue is expected to be about $775 million, down 41 percent, said Jordan Rohan, of Schwab Soundview Capital Markets."

So, was it a zero-sum shift? Maybe. Apparently Yahoo! actually raised CPM and got a demand expansion of unprovable size. Much of its increased volume came from the consolidated earnings of online advertising sales operation, Overture Services, which it bought in October.

Still, they're predicting growth through 2004. Let's go with that and see if this is part of the major shift expected by traditional media. Now if only there was a way to relatively simply make traditional broadcast more interactive and valuable . . . hmmmm . . .

Posted by Grayson at January 15, 2004 07:24 AM