
U. Penn. professor Eric K. Clemons, who researches strategic and competitive information technology,
writes:
The expected drop in internet advertising revenues this year was neither
unpredictable nor unpredicted, nor was it caused solely by the general
recession and the decline in retail sales. Internet advertising will
rapidly lose its value and its impact, for reasons that can easily be
understood. Traditional advertising simply cannot be carried over to
the internet, replacing full-page ads on the back of The New York Times
or 30-second spots on the Super Bowl broadcast with pop-ups, banners,
click-throughs on side bars. This might be a subject where considerable
disagreement is possible, if indeed, pushed ads were still working
in traditional media. Mostly they have failed. One newspaper after
another is going out of business across the United States, and the ad
revenues of traditional print media, even of highly respected magazines,
is declining. The ultimate failure of broadcast media advertising is
likewise becoming clear.
So a newspaper that wants to survive needs to find a way to do it without
depending on traditional broadcast advertising.