Monetizing after the Death of Online Media Advertising

A few little ad campaigns suck here, a media strategy fails there, and then you wake up one morning to read your business' obituary twittered from here to hell and back. C'est la vie, c'est la mort.

That the broadcast advertising upfront market has once again bloomed seems to fly in the face of reason, particularly considering the economic outlook. If upfront has been paid, then online has been robbed. While we hardly notice when content creators go belly-up, we're a little less myoptic about web ad networks.

There's even a few naysaying advertisers out there mumbling about traditional ads not paying their freight in the online world.

Emily Steel wrote today in the Wall Street Journal "Shakeout Threatens to Thin Out Web-Ad Brokers - As the Economy Sours and Venture Funding Grows Scarcer, Some Networks Have Begun to Exit a Crowded Niche on the Internet" . Ms. Steel's description of the shakeout sounds like a growth recession in online spending and a drought in venture-capital funding. Burst and Collective Media are trying to sell out. AOL is feeling the pinch. AdClick's analyst ratings are on a slide. AdBrite is shrinking. The doors are shuttered at JellyCloud and Adzilla. The handwriting is on the wall for the other online ad networks. It's like musical chairs.

Are you one hundred percent reliant upon ad networks for your income? If so, your online media business needs a new monetization paradigm. Otherwise, the rest of us would love to know how your online media business is going to survive. You're going to bat in the bottom of the ninth, down by one, no one's on base, two out, ... we're listening.