Online Advertising Overtakes Print Ads For First Time

This year, for the first time, advertisers have spent more online than they have on print newspaper ads.

Digital-marketing research firm eMarketer said U.S. spending on online ads will reach $25.8 billion in 2010, compared with $22.8 billion on print ads, The Wall Street Journal said.

Advertisers have been migrating to the Internet for years, crippling the revenues for newspapers and forcing many of them out of business completely.

":It's something we've seen coming for a long time, but this is a tipping point," says Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer.

Total ad spending in the U.S. is forecast to rise by 3% this year to $168.5 billion, according to eMarketer. Spending on print ads, meanwhile, will drop 8.2% in 2010 and 6% in 2011.