Today’s Wall Street Journal summarized total ad spend in the U.S. by medium and detailed why Google Radio failed. I like occasionally to read about a Google “failure.” It makes me feel good when even a giant Internet behemoth, like Google, can taste the dust of defeat.
First, the ad spend. Despite the woes of the newspaper industry, it garnered the highest revenues of ALL advertising in 2008: over 34 billion dollars, nearly four billion more than its nearest rival, local TV at a mere $28.8 billion . One wonders why an industry still generating the highest advertising revenues in the United States can’t leverage its assets and create a storm. But, that’s another story.
To sum up the rest, Internet advertising grew to a dominating number three spot (only $23.4B), with cable TV networks not far behind ($21.4B), broadcast TV networks ($18B), radio–still a respectable $17.2B, consumer mags at $12.7B and mobile….Well, mobile didn’t show. Why? Because, despite the mobile industry’s massive percentage growth in the U.S. and overseas, it’s still a very tiny part of Aunt Maude’s blueberry pie.
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