Yet more research out today shows UK digital ad spend’s growth is slowing - despite its overall share of the media pie continuing to grow. In fact, IPA’s Bellwether found growth was not just slower but flat during Q3 - far behind previous quarters and the weakest growth in seven years.

SEE ALSO: Economy Now Hitting Even Web Ad Spend - But How Bad Is It?

Could be worse; you could be in print or broadcast - overall ad spend across media other than the internet was down a hefty 20 percent (and would’ve been 27 percent were it not shored up by the web). Everyone in traditional media saw their ad downturn coming - what’s taking by surprise some, who had continued faith in the web ads boom of recent years, is to see that phenomenon slow down like this, after years of advances. Still, the internet is still holding up as the strongest advertising medium, a slowdown in growth is more comforting than out-and-out decline, and the pace of that slowdown is disputed...

—Enders Analysis recently cut its forecast for 2008 ad spend from £3.56 billion to £3.33 billion and warned of a growth slowdown.

—But the IAB Internet Advertising Bureau last week said web ad spend grew 21 percent in H108 to £1.68 billion, increasing digital’s market share of total advertising to 18.7 percent – only 0.6 percent behind print display advertising and three percent behind TV.

—WARC confidently predicted the “internet will continue to grow throughout the downturn”. Publishers like the Financial Times’s Rob Grimshaw agreed and declared that “the web should be pretty buoyant” in the next three to five years despite the downturn.