Barry Diller, who has been in the media industry as long as almost any man alive, said the online display advertising at his company, IACI, might be down as much as 50% this month. Disney reported that its interactive business lost money in the final quarter of last year. The head of advertising sales at TIME Warner’s AOL internet unit was replaced, probably a reasonable sign that revenue is under-performing there.At The New York Times where income from NYT.com has to do well because the newspaper is losing sales so fast, online revenue fell at a faster pace than print revenue did in December.The prevailing theory about internet display advertising and e-commerce is that they would replace TV, newspapers, and magazines as the most efficient way to reach consumers. Online advertising could target people based on their interests and habits. The number of hours people spend on the internet compared to time spent doing things like watching TV has gone up every year for almost a decade.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1876945,00.html
False Hopes for Internet Profits
Barry Diller, who has been in the media industry as long as almost any man alive, said the online display advertising at his company, IACI, might be down as much as 50% this month. Disney reported that its interactive business lost money in the final quarter of last year. The head of advertising sales at TIME Warner’s AOL internet unit was replaced, probably a reasonable sign that revenue is under-performing there.