Online ad budgets swell, print media ads in question, marketplace looking to open up

Did you see this online ad?

As I wrote previously, storied and revered hardcopy publications such as The Christian Science Monitor and U.S. Business News & World Report are turning their efforts to the Web to reach their audiences.

Obviously, decisions like this are driven by the economy, and most especially by the continuing decline of advertising in both print media and outdoor billboards.

As my fellow Examiner Darrell Proctor reported earlier this week, Google ended its proposed advertising partnership with Yahoo, due in part to a potential lawsuit from the Department of Justice to block this deal.

The upside of this from a business perspective is that a plethora of opportunities will be plentiful for other online advertising firms such as Racepoint Group. Firms like Racepoint are pushing for an open network that levels the online advertising field, predominantly for companies that lack the capital and power of Google, Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo.

If indeed an open network is successfully created, I expect to see many opportunities for small and talented firms to change the landscape of online advertising.