While the 5.3 percent decline in online ad spend recorded by the Interactive Advertising Bureau this week served as an unnecessary reminder of how bad things were in the first six months of the year, a survey of media buyers by JP Morgan analyst Imran Khan offers some hope for right now.

SEE ALSO: IAB: Online Ad Spend Declines 5.3 Percent To $10.9 Billion In First Half ‘09

in a poll of 20 media buyers who manage annual advertising budgets of $1.6 billion—or an average of $81 million per participant—45 percent believe ad spend in the latter six months of ‘09 will be up between 5- and 9 percent from h109 levels; an additional 15 percent are even more optimistic, expecting an upside of 10- to 14 percent over the first half of the year. Just 10 percent anticipate the ad spend situation to worsen by the end of the year. But the lag in spending from January to June has done its damage for this year, as 40 percent of the buyers surveyed are projecting overall 2009 expenditures to be flat compared to 2008.