Web ad revenue to pass TV, papers

Calling it a “watershed moment,” the annual Veronis Suhler Stevenson U.S. advertising research study predicts online advertising will surpass TV and newspapers by 2011.

Among other conclusions in the study:

“Americans in 2007 will spend more time online than reading newspapers (yet advertisers still spend more on newspapers, for now).

“For the first time in a decade, consumers spent less time with media than the previous year, based on the study’s research.

“In 2006 consumers spent the greatest amount of their media time with TV, followed by radio, and just 5 percent of their time online. This year the Internet will grow to about 5.1 percent, while newspapers and recorded music each move down to 4.9 percent.

Loud.com gets big investment

They say hip-hop is dead or maybe just chillin’ – we’re not sure which. In any event, some folks are still interested in moving hip-hop’s audience to the online environment.

Universal Music Group, the largest music label, has invested in Loud.com, which operates the hip-hop community and competition portals Loud.com and Battlerap.com.

Loud.com, based in New York, is pushing a global online hip-hop contest, with professional “beats” from hip-hop artists along with online editing tools that let people create their own raps and compete with other would-be DJs online. Each battle is officiated by a panel of celebrity hip-hop producers, with a 10-round head-to-head elimination resulting in a Loud.com Showdown final. The winner will receive $100,000 and a recording deal with SRC Records.

Yourlist challenges Craigslist

Taking on Craigslist has to be a major challenge for any startup. That hasn’t stopped Portland tech guy Charlie Parks from going after Craigslist. Parks, a University of Washington grad now working for a tech firm in Beaverton, has just launched YourList.com.

Like Craigslist, Yourlist is an online classified system. Based in Beaverton and employing four, YourList started last week offering free national classifieds. Like Craigslist, the site charges people a fee for job ads. YourList charges $15 per job listing.

This is an early-stage development so don’t expect much there for now. As of Thursday, there were but a few classifieds in the Spokane YourList section.

Parks said he’s trying to build the YourList audience. One ploy: giving away a free iPhone every month for the next year.