I’ve lived with online flat-earthers for my entire career as a digital journalist. They’re the ones who always say, “There’s no real business model for online media” or “Look at the numbers — we (television, newspapers, radio) are the dominant medium.” I’d point at the enormous growth rates in both audience share and advertising dollars for online media, but that never quiets the disbelievers (who, admittedly, have dropped in numbers as the years roll by).

Today, research firm eMarketer is saying that spending for digital advertising in the U.S. will exceed print newspaper ads for the first time in 2010 — and not by a small amount, according to this Bloomberg article. Online ad spending will increase by 13.9 percent (in a bad business climate!) to $25.8 billion this year, while print newspaper ads will decline 8.2 percent to $22.8 billion. The research firm also estimates newspaper ads will fall another 6 percent next year, while online spending will grow by another 10.5 percent.

Remember that all of this has happened in a medium that is really only about 15 years old.

Just accept it: People really have changed the way they use media and advertisers really are going right along with them. That doesn’t mean the older forms of media are going away (although, as we move into an era of high-resolution always-connected portable devices, it will be hard to tell what exactly *is* radio, television, online or print). It just means that the future is coming to pass, just as so many have predicted for so long, whether some people like it or not.