It is our fault. The current growth issues facing online advertising are problems that we created and have let persist. There is no question that the economy has been completely mismanaged. There is no denying the $14 trillion in U.S. debt, and there is no sugarcoating the 40% drop in the Dow over the last 12 months that wiped out trillions in shareholder value. Yet, much as we would like to believe, the growth challenges in online advertising have little to do with the recent economic struggles.

For those of you old enough to have watched the '70's television classic, "WKRP in Cincinnati," you will remember the straight-laced, bumbling and insecure newsman from the lowest-rated radio station in Ohio. In one episode, he is having a discussion with a man named Steel in which Steel makes the comment that he feels a man's name says a lot about who he is. He then asks the geeky, balding newsman what is name is. The reply: "Les. Les Nessman." In the same way that "Steel" was a fitting name for the steroid-enhanced deliveryman, "Les" perfectly described the diminutive and …

The heart of what's wrong with our industry can be found beating at our industry conferences. This is where we stand on stages; beat our chests as self-anointed media pioneers celebrating our own kind, while missing the entire big picture.

The interactive dimension of the Web continues to deepen and broaden. Social media, professional communities, user-generated content, games, widgets, video -- all attest to richer levels of audience engagement. How do publishers make the most of this heightened interactivity?

While the online advertising industry struggles, one sector is purposely restraining its growth. Online video advertising could be a $20 billion juggernaut virtually overnight. The television networks just need to be willing to eat their own young. And it has nothing to do with ad formats. Our industry has this perverse need to "innovate" even when the best solution already exists. We have all suffered through countless arguments about pre-rolls versus post-rolls, the correct length of ads, and how to integrate interactivity into ads. These arguments overlook the simplest fact of video advertising: the current format works.

On a recent flight from Phoenix to attend Ad:Tech Chicago, I was sitting near a young boy and his father. As we lifted off and began our rapid ascent, he gazed out the window and proclaimed to his father, "Look dad, the earth is tilting." From his perspective, it seemed perfectly logical to conclude that the earth must be tilting since he was still sitting in his seat and the horizon was no longer flat. ndividual perspective can cause two people who observe the exact same thing to interpret it differently. Such was the case in a recent column in …

It's happening in front of our eyes. Paid ad placements, inside the garden walls protecting traditional media values, are poisoning the grounds where Henry Luce and our publishing forefathers first drew "the line" separating church from state. Today's media-buying demand for a "big idea" required to earn a media commitment, combined with a softer and more competitive environment, all driven by a sales force that has no idea who Henry Luce is, have publishers doing things not done before.

When I was leading a media sales team a few years back, I had a conversation with a senior ad exec at Microsoft who had a reputation for being "all about the numbers." We were talking about what separated the very best publishers from all the rest, and he said that in the end it's all about the results -- and how well you deliver what you say you are going to deliver. But, he added, you can never underestimate the influence of a salespeople who really act as partners and show that they care at least as much about …

The online advertising industry is ground zero for industry analysts who make ridiculous predictions to attract attention. Worse, it is a vicious cycle. The bigger the prediction, the more likely it is to be quoted by venture capitalists, reporters, industry pundits, and CEOs of start-ups looking to raise funding. The more you get quoted, the more reports you sell. So analysts are incentivized to produce ambitious, if fictitious, numbers. Invariably, financial bubbles get created because people ignore fundamentals and start using questionable math to justify their own logic.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced June 26 that it had given preliminary approval to a recommendation to introduce a whole range of new Internet domain names, which would pave the way for a seismic increase in online real estate. Talk about the Internet being like the Wild, Wild West. Along with the extraordinary expansion of domain name choices and opportunities would come HUGE potential for search engine marketing.