• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 18, 2008

That’s right, and that’s a pretty shocking finding, according to Monitor-Plus, the Nielsen’s ad tracking service, which tracks online ad spending along with the rest of the major media. Assuming that’s no mistake, that means online ad spending actually is deteriorating faster than the rest of the ad supported media marketplace in the U.S. Total ad spending in the major media tracked by Nielsen fell only 1.4%, meaning that online is eroding at more than four times the rate of the overall advertising economy.

Granted that Nielsen only tracks “CPM-based, image-based” online advertising, but even so, I’ve got to believe that Nielsen will be retracting those estimates momentarily. They just don’t make sense, especially after hearing eMarketer chief Geoff Ramsey’s comments at OMMA Expo this morning. Yeah, things are slowing down, Ramsey said, but online is still the fastest growing sector of the overall advertising economy.