Online Newspaper Revenues to Hit $1.4B in 2005: Report
The Web sites of established offline newspapers are expected to finish 2005 having brought in $1.4 billion in ad revenue overall, or 36% more than 2004. That far outpaces the growth of the overall online ad market, according to a report released yesterday by New York Internet research aggregator eMarketer.
The company predicts that overall online ad spending in the U.S. will grow to $11.3 billion in 2005 from $9.4 billion in 2004, or just over 20%.
As more readers turn to the Internet for news and big advertisers shift more of their budgets to the Web, marketers perceive online newspapers as a “safe” environment where they can advertise next to predictable content, eMarketer’s report said.
“The publishing sector is positioned to grow strongly through this year and into next,” said Ezra Palmer, eMarketer’s editorial director and the author of the report. “Ad spending still significantly underplays the online channel.”
The company estimates that online advertising currently accounts for only about four percent of marketer’s advertising budgets.
According to eMarketer, online newspaper ad revenue is expected to grow to $1.71 billion in 2006, $1.91 billion in 2007 and $2.26 billion in 2008.
The company predicts overall online ad spending to be $13.3 billion in 2006 and account for 4.5 percent of marketers budgets, and $15.5 billion in 2007 and account for 5.1 percent of marketers ad budgets.
eMarketer reaches its conclusions by gathering research from Internet analyst firms such as Gartner Group, JupiterResearch and Forrester Research and aggregating it. It’s findings usually fall somewhere in the middle of the conclusions of the firms it monitors.
