Borrell Associates predicted a big gain in the overall local online ad market, with local search representing a big slice of the market share.
We’ll tell the yellow pages firms and local papers why they are doomed in a moment.
Ok, Borrell Associates has released their 2008 Outlook: Local Online Advertising report. They estimated next year’s total local ad market will reach a whopping $12.6 billion in spending.
Of that figure, Borrell said $5 billion will come from local search advertising. Another $1.3 billion should arrive as the local online video market triples from 2007.
Now for the bad news for the yellow pages and local news publishers, from the report:
Next year will be a perplexing one for local media companies trying to tackle the Web. Most yellow pages publishers, cable companies, newspapers, radio stations and TV stations are still pinning their hopes on their traditional sales reps being able sell online ad packages. But there is increasing evidence to support the idea that a greater investment in an independent online sales force will be necessary to continue the growth these properties have enjoyed for the past few years.
There is one thing that can potentially help the publishers that have been mentioned. Borrell suggested the pure-play Internet companies, like Google and Yahoo, may have an interest in partnering with local firms to bolster their local advertising presence.
We have seen this in the classified field, where Yahoo and its HotJobs site have a number of newspapers as partners to help sell job listings. Perhaps 2008 will be the year where these partnerships broaden in number and scope.
