Did Ad Standards Kill the Online Ad Business?

In 2001, the last time the Internet ad market crashed, the biggest publishers figured one thing they could do to make the best of things is to make it easier for marketers to buy ads on Web sites. They created standard sizes for banner ads and other formats, through the Interactive Advertising Bureau. That way, an ad created for one site could easily be run on others.

Now some publishers, at least, think that those very standards are now at the root of the industry’s current problems.

When I met up with Charles Tillinghast, the president of MSNBC.com, the other day, he was just coming back from an advertising sales call. So I started by asking how business was going.

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