Jon Bernstein wisely questions the relationship between current economic woes and the advertising slump, particularly as it applies to knee-jerk revenue ideas:

Maybe this rush to find other ways to monetise will be a passing phase and when the economy picks up so too will online advertising revenues.

After all, what's the alternative?

There's no doubt the economy gathered advertising in its arms as it dropped off the cliff, but are we now witnessing advertising's inevitable destruction, or are old-guard publishers mixing all their worries about the Internet, free distribution, audience dispersion and reduced ad margins into a cocktail of fear? My bet is that a rebound in digital advertising -- something that feels inevitable as confidence grows -- will quell talk of paywalls, subscriptions and other counterintuitive schemes.

Via Mindy McAdams' Twitter stream