Q1 dotcom advertising bloodbath

First quarter ad sales were off 5% versus Q1 ’08, the IAB estimates. This is the first year-over-year decline in quarterly Internet advertising since 2002.

Versus the holiday-bloated Q4, the Q1 number was an even more horrendous decline, down 17%.

Relative to the rest of the economy, the Internet advertising decline doesn’t look outrageous. But the rest of the economy isn’t still pumping out product — more cars, more hotdogs, more washingmachines, more homes — with reckless abandon. Producers have cut back to reduce costs and avoid stockpiling goods nobody will buy.

The same isn’t true online. New dotcoms are still being conceived and birthed daily, and CGM (postings on Youtube, Myspace, Flickr etc) is still doubling yearly.

Malthusian pricing Armageddon impends.

Update: Here’s more data on overall advertising trends. The Internet’s Q1 decline looks wonderful relative to things like ad spends in local Sunday supplements (-38%) and B2B magazines (-30%) and spot TV 101-210DMAs (29%.)