The ad industry experienced signs of a downturn in the first half of the year, with TNS Media Intelligence reporting that total spending for the period was down a slight 0.3 percent to $72.59 billion. And while it’s certainly positive that online display ads for H107 was up 17.7 percent to $5.52 billion, last year TNS said that advertising on websites in H106 rose 18.9 percent over the same time frame for 2005. Again, this does appear to add to the evidence (here and here) that the past few years’ surge of online ad spending is slowing.

In terms of the share of ad spending, there is a steady progression of the internet assuming more and more of the pie—albeit in single-digit slices. For the first half of 2007, the internet’s ad spend take was 7.6 percent of total ad spending, while the same period last year was 6.4 percent, and 5.6 percent for H105.

So while online advertising still seems strong, it’s hard to say what sort of impact an overall ad downturn might have on spending. The signs for the industry in general are not good at this point. As Steven Fredericks, TNS Media Intelligence’s president and CEO, noted in a statement, this is the first time since 2001 that ad spending declined for two consecutive quarters. Release

• Online Newspaper Ad Revs Up 19.3 Percent In Q2, But Signs Of Slowdown Are Clear
• Online Ad Spending Continues To Surge In 2007, But Growth Tightens In 2008: Report