Print and Online Newspaper Ad Spending Defeated By Online Ad Buys In 2010

In 2010 a trend that pleases those of us in the online publication game emerged, advertisers decided it was time to focus their ad spending towards the online market, allowing online publications to earn more ad revenue than their print counterparts.

The trending info comes from eMarketer who’s CEO Geoff Ramsey said of his company’s findings:

“Marketers are devoting bigger shares of their budgets to digital media as they see more customers shifting time toward the Web.”

Placing the findings into perspective, newspaper ad revenues for both online and print publications came in at $25.7 billion in 2010, that number is compared to an estimated $25.8 billion spent through online advertising for the rest of the internet, including new media company’s, social networking websites and various other web properties.

The move makes sense since online ads can be easily implemented by any company willing to create a banner ad, hire someone to build a flash ad or otherwise hire out their marketing needs. Online ads as Ramsey points out also offer measurable results, which fail with tradition ads outside of perhaps tracking coupon offers and other limited ad options with tracking capabilities.

eMarketer also found that by 2014 online display ads will overtake search ads, while online video advertising is expected to skyrocket with a minimum of 34% growth per year through 2014.

It should be noted that the numbers listed above are found in just one study, however given various trending data points over the last 12 months, it’s safe to say that if online ad buys have not overtaken traditional newspaper print and newsprint online ads, they are very close to doing so over the next 12 months.