The web may be the fastest-growing advertising space, but it could be growing even faster were there enough experienced practitioners to create, sell, and measure such advertising, writes the Financial Times.

The online advertising boom could be making even more noise, particularly in online video, according to ad and media execs, writes FT; but as in the '90s, new media is too new for there to be experienced practitioners in sufficient numbers to handle, say, user-generated content. "There is a dearth of talent on the agency and marketing side and the online publishing side," James Kiernan, associate digital director at MediaVest, is quoted as saying.

"The internet is a less linear space controlled by the consumer, and that makes advertising strategies a lot more complex than those used for television," Kiernan says.

Social-networking sites have quickly become the place where online audiences gather, and those sites' business model is to attract advertising, but "a shortage of talented people," according to Robin Kent, former chief executive of Universal McCann Worldwide, makes that easier said then done.