Considering the amount of time consumers spend online - comparable to TV viewing and significantly higher than print and radio - online media companies find themselves vexed that the amount of actual ad dollars going to the web still lags far behind those other mediums. Steve Wadsworth, president of the Walt Disney Internet Group, (NYSE: DIS) offered the IAB Audience Measurement Leadership Forum in New York a few reasons for the disconnect:

-- New paradigm, old measurements: Wadsworth skipped charts and graphics, joking that he didn’t want to start an argument among a room full of researchers. But he did offer a general outline of current media consumption: print attracts about 4 percent of an individual’s total media usage, with radio taking a 20 percent share, while TV and internet each account for 40 of consumers’ time. “So consumers are voting in terms of their time, yet advertising dollars are not following the viewership, despite all the phenomenal growth. There’s a million reasons why this dynamic exists.” Mainly, Wadsworth said, online advertising is held back because the industry continues to measure its audience according to methods already in place for old media. ”The internet encompasses all the tools and abilities of other media. I understand the need for comparability, but measuring online usage the same way as TV or radio only creates more confusion. Ultimately, it ignores the potential of the internet from a marketing and consumer standpoint. We need to adopt a new paradigm that reflects the change in media consumption.”

-- Poor positioning: By not establishing a new paradigm for tracking online audiences, media companies are unable to help marketers focus their campaigns for the web. “Most individual media forms do one or two things really well. That makes it very clear and easy for advertisers to craft a campaign. For example, if I know that TV is about reach and establishing brand, that provides focus for my message. Direct response is about lead generation. Again, the medium lets you know beforehand what you can achieve. The internet can do all that and more. But saying that doesn’t help advertisers decide how they want to spend their money.”

-- Too much data, too many options: “We have a credibility and perception issue that is undermining the potential of the internet as an advertising medium. There are too many ways to track audience behavior, some contradictory. There’s too much data and it’s far from simple in terms of sorting out. If I’m an advertiser, I want to know what my gain and loss is if I shift my money from TV to online? We can’t really answer that.”