CEO of Leading Blog Network Warns of Online Advertising Collapse
By Anna Johnson on November 24th, 2008Some analysts and research firms – eMarketer being a notable inclusion – seem to think that online advertising will keep on rising, albeit at a slower rate, over the coming year.
But in light of the current economic downturn, Nick Denton, founder of leading blog network, Gawker Media, suggests that online advertising may actually decline – and decline sharply – in 2009.
When someone with a vested interest in talking UP online advertising is so bearish… it’s worth taking note. Nick indicates that those who claim that Internet advertising is largely immune to the recession because it’s more ‘measurable’ are just kidding themselves.
Says Nick:
“The sector’s maturity also means that its underlying growth is more sluggish than it was in the late 1990s. In 2001, internet advertising swung to a 13% decline from 78% growth the previous year; this time the sector starts from a growth rate of 27%; I would hate to see what a swing as violent as the dotcom burst would look like.
As for the measurability of internet media: sure, marketers and their agencies can track engagement and clicks in great detail online; but it’s still only television advertising that can demonstrate a correlation between spending and a boost to a marketer’s sales.”
