Internet advertising to eclipse print advertising by 2015

In a continuing sign that people are moving online for news and information, by 2015 Internet advertising will eclipse combined newspaper and magazine ad spending globally. This according to the advertising firm, ZenithOptimedia.

Social media and mobile advertising will play a key role in online spending, particularly with large companies like Facebook and Google working towards building more effective mobile platforms. Specific findings include:

• Online advertising spending is expected to be accountable for 59% of growth in total spending.
• Online advertising expenditures will remain at the head of the market with a growth of 14 to 15 percent per year going forward from 2013 through 2015.
• Online ad spending will soar from an 18% market share in 2012, to 23.54% in 2015.

No surprise that while digital is on the rise, print is on the decline:

• Traditional print advertising will drop by 1% annually.
• By next year Internet advertising will likely become larger than newspaper advertising, and just two years later, it will exceed newspaper and magazine advertising combined.

Some of you may be saying, “Duh, print readers and the number of print publications has been on the decline for the last 10 years. Of course Internet advertising spend is going to exceed that of print.” The fact is that even though print’s been on a severe decline, the rates advertisers have been willing to pay for Internet advertising have been low. Advertisers, largely because of the way distribution has been measured, have been willing to pay more for print. With the flip, law firms can expect to see more opportunities to publish online and have their content shared/syndicated digitally. With increased Internet ad revenue publishers will be providing increased syndication opportunities for third party publishers. Print copy will be less and less available to law firms. As the ad revenue declines, publishers are going to move from print. Rather than look for opportunities to get their content published elsewhere in print (articles, public relations professional etc), law firms need to empower their lawyers to publish blogs and blog-like content). It’s this content that will be valuable to publishers, and in turn, be syndicated for wider engagement opportunities. And for law firms advertising in print, you may want to look to digital and the net. It’s where your readers are going. Source: GigaOm’s Robert Andrews (@RobertAndrews) : discusses these findings and the Forecast : Internet Ad Spend Will Outstrip All Print In 2015