If you’ve been reading the Online Spin (JaOM’s sister publication) lately, you’ve been privy to many a discussion about the upfront buying season and the possibilities of it ever including the Internet, as in a cross-media upfront. Judging by the debate, we’re a few years away from that (that’s if the practice of upfront TV buying even survives the next decade), but today’s USA/Yahoo! deal could be an indication of things to come.

Yesterday, one of the trade publications excitedly reported that Travelocity was shifting 20% of its offline marketing budget to the web. Sure, that’s great news for all online aficionados, but I don’t understand why so many marketers seem so surprised every time something like that happens. Ever since Doritos decided to spend its Super Bowl budget on the Internet last year, saying the returns on investment would be greater with online ads, it’s been made abundantly clear that the web deserves a bigger slice of the pie.