Local Online Advertising

Terry Heaton has a really good overview of the disparity in local vs. national online ad spends.

From the article:

"No one sees this better than Gordon Borrell, whose research and consulting business is based on counting local ad dollars spent online. One service he provides is a precise analysis of the local online ad business, and the volume of dollars being spent usually astounds executives of local media companies, most of whom are getting only a very small slice of the pie.

Borrell poses an important question when he speaks with local media companies. "Will," he asks, "the online advertising pie ever reach the local/national parity that's found with advertising overall?"
One, local media companies simply must move forward with Media 2.0 concepts that offer real value to the communities they serve. This is a difficult proposition, because a.) most existing media companies don't understand the space and b.) they're too busy defending themselves against the disruption to see the value of embracing it.

Two, the local advertising community needs to be brought up to speed on what's possible locally in the 2.0 space, and that doesn't mean spending more on some local media company's portal website.

Three, the VC community needs to see the potential in Borrell's reaching of advertising parity and help fund local online businesses that may or may not be affiliated with public media companies."