How’s this for real change? A new study by Veronis Suhler Stevenson (a “private equity firm that invests buyout and structured capital funds in the media) says online ad sales will pass print ad sales by 2011. The survey forecasts annual online advertising growth of more than 21 percent, reaching $62 billion in 2011, vs. print advertising’s forecasted $60 billion.
The study says TV ad revenues will remain number one, with $80 billion in 2011.
“The path of online advertising and newspaper advertising is a continuation of what we’ve been observing for many years, but it is finally getting to the point where the lines will cross,” said VSS’s James Rutherfurd. The amount of time spent reading online will overtake time spent reading newspapers for the first time this year, the report says.
Another interesting detail: Overall media use was down 0.5 percent in 2006, to 3,530 hours per person. Meanwhile, workplace media usage jumped 3.2 percent to 260 hours per year for each worker. “Knowledge and information industries drive the U.S. economy, meaning that information is a critical tool,” Rutherfurd said. “Companies are prepared to pay a lot of money to get that information.”
Hat tip to Seeking Alpha (Disclosure: I write SoundMoneyTips.com, a blog owned by Seeking Alpha.)
