Channel Seven: The IAB's Cash Infusion

Channel Seven Senior Editor Zach Rodgers published an investigative piece today exploring what exactly happened to the $5.8 million the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) raised with an advanced dues program earlier this year. But more interesting than the spending programs are the attitudes revealed by both the IAB and the eleven donors. Both groups seem to accept the idea that these larger companies that put more investment into the IAB should and do control more of the IAB's agenda.

This distended influence of the larger member companies, such as Yahoo, MSN and AOL, exacerbates problems identified earlier by smaller and mid-sized companies that have expressed feelings of being severely under-represented in the past.

The IAB has seen a reinvigoration in the past year, reflecting new policies of president Greg Stuart, including the explicit recognition that the group represents the sell-side of the industry and a successful effort to broaden membership from 35 to 160 firms. The recent cash boost solved the biggest remaining hurdle for the previously-struggling trade group, but perhaps at the expense of becoming less representative of the industry.