A recent study from IDC says:

Internet advertising in the United States will continue to grow fast even as the current economic woes will lead to a contraction in ad spending overall, essentially accelerating the transfer of marketing budgets from the traditional media into the new. During the forecast period, Internet advertising will grow about eight times as fast as advertising at large. IDC finds overall Internet advertising revenue will double from $25.5 billion in 2007 to $51.1 billion in 2012.

The Internet will go from the number 5 medium all the way to the number 2 medium in just 5 years, making it bigger than newspapers, bigger than cable TV, bigger even than broadcast TV, and second only to direct marketing. Read More Here.

Henry Blodget says:

“If your career, portfolio, or fortune isn’t tied to the newspaper business, however, rejoice. The newspaper industry’s loss is your gain!In ten years, print-paper circulation and ad revenue will likely be a quarter of what it is today, if that.

Why? Because:

• • As circulations and ad revenue continue to fall, print economies-of-scale will reverse, cutting further into already shrinking print margins.
  • As “green business” practices take hold, a new generation of consumers will come to view the newspaper industry as a horrifically wasteful polluter that eats forests, gobbles fuel and electricity, and farts untold amounts of hydrocarbons into the atmosphere–all to deliver information that might have been interesting yesterday.
  • A generation of newspaper ad salespeople and ad sales buyers will gradually retire or quit, and advertisers will increasingly ask themselves why they are spending billions on ads they have no idea whether anyone looks at.
  • As financial and environmental pressures increase and a better grasp of reality sets in, more papers will opt to do what the Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin, did last weekend: Shut down their print businesses, fire a third of their staff, and put what’s left online.” Read More

From PaidContent.org:

– All about scale: Alan Schanzer, managing partner, at WPP Group’s MEC Interaction said this deal won’t affect the current TV marketplace negotiations but it will help CBS follow through on the emphasis it gave to “the portability of content” at Wednesday’s upfront presentation. Schanzer: “It gives them more places to showcase their programming or invite audiences back to view their programming. This is where scale becomes critically important. It’s not always going to be the case where people go home and turn on their TV to watch CBS. It will be much more about CBS going out to this mass audience of people and saying we have this content, come watch it. That’s why we think the blended marketplace that this deal creates is so interesting, because the flow of content works in both directions.” >Read More

….according to analysts in this article from MediaDaily News:

A FULL-BLOWN RECESSION WOULD PROBABLY take a substantial bite out of traditional media, according to a survey of industry analysts and independent researchers. But digital media will benefit from these draw-downs as financially strapped marketing executives shift dollars online, seeking more transparent measures of ROI. In many cases, a recession would simply accelerate a long-term trend that is already underway.

In the event of a recession, the outlook is considerably gloomier for newspapers and radio, where revenues are already declining because of long-term secular trends, which were in evidence well before the economy began to sputter.

After slipping 1.68% in 2006, total U.S. print newspaper ad revenues tumbled an alarming 9% during the first three quarters of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006, to $30.5 billion (fourth-quarter figures aren’t yet available). “And that was in relatively good economic times,” observed Ken Doctor, a newspaper analyst with Outsell, Inc., who said “a recession would simply compound the structural change of readers and advertisers moving from print to online.” (Read More)

1. Includes broadcast, cable syndication 2. includes national and local
Source: TNS Media Intelligence

“GM, in what could signal a no-look-back shift to digital marketing, will dedicate half of its $3 billion budget to digital and one-to-one marketing in the next three years.As the country’s third largest advertiser, GM’s switch may be the online marketing shot heard round the automotive world. GM, which spent nearly $10 billion on advertising last year, will use several online methods including gaming, search, mobile and a broad array of interactive applications. Consumers looking to buy new vehicles were among the first to embrace online research to support buying decisions. And while television and print still have a place in product launches and awareness, many dealers now accept that the purchase process starts - and sometimes ends - online.” via (Media Buyer Planner)

From The Outlook:

“Traditional Media on the Bandwagon What does this mean for the big media companies? Any new information source is considered a competitor, and old media is increasingly in cahoots with bloggers to share readership and ad revenues. Newspapers, for example, have recently looked to the blogosphere for a larger audience. In early August, 2007, The New York Times joined with the authors of the Freakonomics blog, which comments on economic thinking in everyday situations, and moved it under the Times brand’s online and editorial umbrellas. The blog’s co-author, Stephen Dubner, saw the partnership as an opportunity to work with a renowned newspaper and garner”the readership and support that comes along with it.” (Read More)

U.S. Web 2.0 Investment by Region, 2006-2007

Source: Red Herring

From Burst Media:

“Overall, a majority (52.0%) of respondents believe Internet content is primarily focused toward people their own age. However, this overall result does not paint a complete picture of the state of online content. In fact, survey results show significant differences in the evaluation of online content by age segments .

Not surprisingly, younger respondents are most likely to say online content is focused on people their age. This is particularly true for the 18-24 year and 25-34 year segments – of which 76.0% and 73.9%, respectively, say online content is primarily focused toward people their age. Additionally, more than one-half (55.7%) of respondents 35-44 years perceive online content as focused toward their age segment.

Starting with the 45-54 year segment there is a precipitous decline in the number of respondents who say Internet content is focused toward people their age. In fact, within this age segment only one in three (35.4%) believe online content is focused on people their own age. Few respondents 55 years and older say Internet content is primarily focused on people their age.” (Read More)

From Media Post Online Spin:

“If you have been following what these candidates have been raising, you know it’s certainly not an issue of money. But there is a fair amount of blame that falls on the ad networks and online media properties not making it easier to buy. While brands have time to test and learn, campaigns are in very compressed time cycles. Contextual and behavioral ad networks need to make it easy for them. Candidates have certainly learned how to pull money out of online interactions. Now if they could only figure out how to get a return on putting money back into online.” (Read More)

@

Howard Allen Chubbs Enrichment Center

1106 Tuscaloosa Street

Greensboro, North Carolina 27406

8:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M.

About The Conference

The conference is designed to increase the interconnectedness of people and places and the impact of globalization on small and minority businesses as a result of advances in transport, communication, and information technologies that causes political, economical, and cultural convergence.

The conference will give small and minority businesses the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the direction they should take to gain globalization linkage. Additionally, the large corporate and global community will have the opportunity to meet and get to know what small and minority businesses have to offer in services and products. Attendees can expect to enhance their knowledge and skills when competing for business. We will hear how this can be done through messages brought to us by our nationally and internationally known speakers, forum panelists, and luncheon keynote address.

We look forward to this being one of the most exciting educational events for small and minority businesses of 2008.

• For list of speakers click here.
• To register go here.
• Become a sponsor and support here.

We would like to thank George Scott of Just Plain Etiquette and the Ladoya Group for inviting us to participate.

This is going to be a great event. Hope to see you there.