Online ads - show me the money

Why should companies and agencies place an ad online? That was one of many questions that came up in yesterday's seminar with BA advertising and marketing students. Research by MORI and Pew has found news website readers to be younger, more affluent, better educated and more likely to have shopped online than newspaper readers.

This, along with broadband, has spurred online advertising growth and yet and yet....it is still not enough. Analysis presented this week to the World Association of Newspapers says news websites need up to 100 extra online users to accompany each reader that migrates from print editions or they will lose revenue. "As more and more people shift their news reading from print to online, the newspaper industry must dramatically increase its online advertising revenues or die," said Vincent Crosbie, a senior associate at American media strategist Borrell Associates.

Self-styled 'blog daddy' Jeff Jarvis puts it another way: "Advertisers still feel safer buying print even though all the audience growth is online, which means they’re still paying too much for too little. It’s a painful syncopation."

What will be the business model of the future? My brain hurts already so post back some comments.