A looming General Motors strike could accelerate the automaker's shift from traditional media to online media and create a ripple effect across most media, warned Merrill Lynch ad industry analyst Lauren Rich Fine in a report released today, MediaPost writes (via MediaBuyerPlanner). Fine said that Interpublic Group might be further destabilized by a strike, but that digital shop Digitas could benefit.

"GM accounts for 22 percent of Digitas's revenues. We believe the move to more cost effective advertising essentially means that Digitas will likely benefit since online advertising is deemed a more cost effective medium than traditional mediums such as TV and print," she wrote

The report said that a strike would be a clear negative for TV and print media. In 2005, GM spent about 55 percent of its ad budget on TV, 20 percent on newspapers and 17 percent on magazines. Online, the least vulnerable medium to strike-related cutbacks, is estimated to have been 4 percent of the automaker's budget in 2005, but Fine believes those estimates to be conservative.