As the internet succeeds, media execs are moving in, writes Greg Lindsay for mb:

It's taken nearly ten years, but the Web is finally delivering results that not only print editors but also business executives can understand. While Web ad sales are booming and expected to overtake magazines this year according to Merrill Lynch and other analysts, magazines are struggling. At CondeNet's sites ad revenue rose 65 percent in 2005. By contrast, the only Conde Nast magazines to post even a double digit gain in advertising pages last year were the relatively young launches Teen Vogue and Cargo — and the latter was shut down just a few weeks ago.

The trend has affected thinking throughout the media world, which is again abuzz with talk of the Web. The difference is that this time the profits are for real - and the print and broadcast sides that control the purse strings are taking notice. Web-savvy staffers are once again looking like winners after a few years spent toiling in the boiler rooms of media conglomerates which had hoped to forget they'd ever existed. There's a relative hiring boom underway in the online divisions of blue-chips like CBS News, Hearst, Hachette Filipacchi and even Conde Nast during a period when those companies and their peers are clamping down on headcount at their magazines or broadcast properties.

More here.