Portals protect their lead in online ad spending: with reports that ad spend with the top 10 sales points is increasing, do agencies think it bodes well for the industry?

New Media Age, September, 2003 by Chris Dillabough

News that the proportion of online ad spend going to the lop 10 sales points has increased, or at least stopped falling, as reported in NMA last week, looks like good news for' portals like Yahoo!, MSN and Freeserve, and bad news for sites outside the small Premier League.

It also flies in the thee of the received wisdom that, while media is still consolidating in the wake of the dotcom meltdown, many agencies have been spending more widely on established second and third-tier sites, to reach niche audiences.

According to Interactive Advertising Bureau (TAB)/PricewaterhouseCoopers figures released last year, 83% of the money spent on online ads went to the top l0 sales points in 2001, compared with 89% during the previous year. When the IAB released 2002 ad...