Advertising: Online will overtake newspaper spend in US by 2011; may happen in UK in 2007

The shift of ad spend from pulp to pixels continues apace. An FT report out today suggests that, in the US, online advertising is expected to overtake newspaper advertising by 2011 — and that this may happen in the UK as soon as this year, 2007.

The forecast comes from from an annual research report by Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) which also says that online ad spend will grow at a rate of 21% per year to reach $62bn in 2011, exceeding the forecast figure of $60bn for newspaper ad spend in that year. Of course, TV (terrestrial, satellite and cable combined) will still hold the top position with an $86bn spend in 2011, the report says.

The report claims that some forecasters are expecting online to overtake newspaper advertising in the UK and Sweden this year.