Over the past week or two the major ad tracking firms have affirmed what many media people already knew: The media economy is in a lull with flat year-to-year growth in ad spending.

But there are a couple of exceptions, and one's the internet, of course.

The other is alternative out-of-home media, which runs from mall displays to sky-writing. In 2007 it grew 27.7 percent, to $2.2 billion, according to PQ Media of Stamford, Conn.

Those figures come from a recent report by the research outfit on the far larger field that it defines as alternative advertising, which is all forms of media beyond traditional electronic media, TV and radio, and print, magazines and newspapers.

By PQ's reckoning, alternative advertising grew 22 percent in 2007, to $73.4 billion, and it’s expected grow another 20.2 percent this year, to $88.24 billion.

At a compound annual growth of 17.0 percent over the years 2007 to 2012, it will reach $160.8 billion by the latter year and represent 26.6 percent of all dollars spent on advertising and marketing in U.S.

Nearly half that spending is accounted for by online and mobile advertising, which includes search, online classified and display advertising and internet yellow pages, among others. That rose 29.1 percent in 2007, to $29.94 billion.

In its alternative out-of-home segment, PQ includes things like outdoor video networks, digital billboards, street teams, transit and taxi ads and ambient campaigns.