Advertisers in the U.S. will spend $24.9 billion online this year, according to the latest report from eMarketer.
That estimate is slightly lower than they released in March 2008 -- which predicted that U.S. online advertising spending would reach $25.9 billion in 2008.
Regardless of the economic problems in the market, to be clear, the lowered estimate still represents an increase of 17.4 percent over 2007.
"Even as the potent mix of a misfiring economy and consumer's changing media habits shave advertising dollars from traditional venues, such as newspapers and television, Internet ad spending will continue to grow rapidly," said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.
Once again, as previously reported, increased digital marketing spending is coming directly out of traditional media budgets. The growing evidence is undisputed.
Although TV ad spending is set to increase by 7.1 percent in 2008 to $72.6 billion, eMarketer predicts such spending will actually shrink in 2009 by 2.6 percent before resuming 1 to 2 percent growth in 2010 and 1011.
Newspapers are taking an even harder hit. Borrell Associates predicted in March 2008 that newspaper ad spending in the U.S. would fall from $50.8 billion in 2007 to $45 billion in 2012.