Confirming what many already feared, Internet advertising was down in the first quarter of 2009. According to reports released by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), an association of industry players that governs ad standardization on the web, and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), Internet advertising revenues in the US went down to $5.5 billion in Q1 2009.

The decline represented a 5 percent drop over the same period of 2008 and follows a surprising rise in the last quarter of 2008 where ad revenue was at an all time high. “Current economic conditions are clearly challenging," David Silverman, PwC Assurance partner, said. “Nonetheless, interactive media continues to consume a larger piece of the overall advertising pie.”

“Interactive advertising has taken its rightful place as a fixture on marketing plans across sectors, which means we aren’t immune to broader economic trends,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “Nevertheless, consumers are spending more and more time with interactive media. For this, and other reasons, interactive media continues to gain share of marketing spend. We’re confident that growth will resume as the U.S. economic climate improves. Interactive advertising is the most accountable way to reach consumers - and in this economy, digital media will be a core component of any successful marketing campaign.”

The results are not surprising considering the current economic environment as advertising revenues went down in all major mediums with newspaper advertising revenue dropping an unprecedented 28.28 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year. This amounts to $2.6 billion in lost income. These figures include both online and print advertising but the biggest drop was in real-life newspaper ads with a 29.7 percent decline to $5.9 billion. Online newspapers ad sales also declined by 13.4 percent to just $696.3 million in the same period.