Online advertising is still growing in France, despite a crisis in overall ad spending - but not as fast as some would like. Digital will be the only advertising sector to see significant growth in 2008, says France Pub (via eMarketer); that much was expected. But in 2007 the sector was growing by 35.2 percent year-on-year, so the rate of of growth has dropped almost 12 percent in a year. France Pub calculates that spend on display and search ads will reach €913 million (£719 million) by year’s end, a 23.4 percent increase on 2007. Every other sector will see a loss for the year with newspapers down 2.9 percent to €4.26 million (£3.35 million), TV down 3.9 percent at €4.13 million (£3.25 million) and the country’s ad market overall slipping by 0.4 percent.

SEE ALSO: Earnings: Hi-Media Sees Online Advertising Market Slowdown; Could It Spread?

According to France Pub, H208 spend is already lagging behind H108 due to adverse economic conditions. And the advertisers agree: in July, French advertising and publishing group Hi-Media predicted a “much more difficult environment” for web ads. It said its own €30.4 million (£24 million) in ad sales, a 17 percent year-on-year growth, for H108 was merely “satisfactory in the context of an online advertising slowdown”. So who knows how bad it might be then in H208. More after the jump…