It's outsiders we must convince, not each other

New Media Age, June, 2004 by Michael Nutley

It's one of the great truisms of the Internet that it's the most measurable medium of all. That measurability, however, has proved to be something of a double-edged sword for the industry that has grown up around the medium.

Now a fresh row has broken out over online figures (see News, page 3). The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) was due to release the 2003 full-year ad spend figures in May, but pushed the announcement back first to June and now to July. It's blaming the media owners, saying they've taken too long to submit their figures although it does admit the audit process has been made more complicated this year by the inclusion of new classifications and formats. In their turn, leading media owners are suggesting the data-gathering process is inconsistent...