• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 19, 2012

eMarketer Thursday released an updated ad forecast predicting that online would surpass print ad spending this year.

"U.S. online advertising spending, which grew 23% to $32.03 billion in 2011, is expected to grow an additional 23.3% to $39.50 billion this year, pushing it ahead of total spending on print newspapers and magazines," the research aggregator and analyst projects in its updated forecast, which projects that ad spending is expected to fall to $33.80 billion in 2012, from $36.00 billion in 2011.

"Despite concerns about the troubled economy among agencies and marketers, total ad spending in the U.S. is expected to rebound in 2012 after rising 3.4% to $158.90 billion in 2011," the report also predicts -- noting that total U.S. media ad spending will grow an estimated 6.7% to $169.48 in 2012, boosted by the national elections and summer Olympics in London.

While quadrennial-boosted TV ad budgets will rise 6.8% to $64.80 billion this year, eMarketer projects that "digital remains the sole bright spot" for print-based newspaper and magazine publishers.

eMarketer estimates U.S. digital newspaper ad revenues grew 8.3% to $3.30 billion in 2011. Print advertising revenues at newspapers fell 9.3% to $20.70 billion in 2011. At magazines, U.S. print ad revenues are expected to rise 0.5% to $15.34 billion in 2012, up from $15.30 billion last year. U.S. digital advertising spending at magazines grew 18.8% to $2.70 billion in 2011.