The future of the advertising industry is anyone's guess at this point. This morning, according to a New York Times story, a "leading media forecaster has reduced his estimate for American advertising spending in 2001, predicting for the first time a decline for this year from 2000." It's official. "We are in a genuine advertising recession, and we can expect some radical belt-tightening and shifting of business plans and strategies," the forecaster said. That forecaster is Jack Myers, chief economist at Myers Reports in New York. Generally optimistic and bullish on ad spending, this time around Myers estimated …

Could this be a sign of good things to come for the online advertising industry? Everyone's been bemoaning the speed (or lack thereof) with which traditional advertisers are embracing online ad vehicles, but it seems some progress is being made. Slowly, but surely. Unfortunately, I only have one example, but it's worth mentioning - Ask Jeeves. Last week they announced that brick-and-mortar mainstay Coca-Cola had signed on, and today nine more advertisers - Autoweb, Apartments.com, Intuit, Hertz, iVillage.com, Travelocity.com, JustFlowers.com, Marriott and Toyota - joined the roster. The new signings come just as Ask Jeeves said it would lay …