Last year is projected to be a modest success for the advertising market, expected to tally a five percent year-over-year increase from 2004. However, much of that growth has been boosted by the
incredible sustained growth of the online sector, which has grown at an average rate of 25 percent the last few years, and will continue to do so in '06. Online ad spending in 2002 was $6 billion,
exactly half of last year's estimated total. Not only that, but the year-over-year growth from 2004 to 2005 will have been by about a third, should ad spending reach its $12 billion target. While all
that is very impressive, we must remember that half of that comes from search, which means that other sectors have a LOT of room for growth, especially as Internet media consumption grows. One online
sector that suffered in '05 was print newspapers. One of the main problems newspapers have is in monetizing their online products appropriately and efficiently. As one analyst points out, at too many
advertisers, online is still bundled in as part of a print buy. The value, he says, is now online, not on paper. In a big political year, we should see unprecedented efforts to connect specific
audiences to political ads in 2006, and online advertising should take a small share of political spending away from older mediums like TV.
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