Political spending on the Internet is growing faster than any other medium, as candidates and their supporters experiment with the Web's ability to reach potential supporters, a study released Thursday showed.

Political advertising spending on the Internet in 2004 will still be a sliver of overall media spending, researcher PQ Media LLC said in a report entitled "Political Media Buying 2004." Nevertheless, the $25.3 million expected to be spent represents an 853.8 percent increase from 2000.


While politicians, supporters and activists are spending more on banner ads and rich-media advertising, the Internet is primarily being used for campaign fundraising and voter registration, the Stamford, Conn., research firm said. Increasingly, candidates are using the Internet's ability to reach target audiences to send out e-mail that supplement direct-mail campaigns.


The Internet, however, still has a long ways to go before it catches up with broadcast television, which is expected to reap $1.5 billion in political advertising spending this year. But skyrocketing spending on the digital medium has made it a real player.


"Eight years ago the Internet was a national medium that wasn't used in the political process," Patrick Quinn, president and founder of PQ Media, said. "Now it's a vehicle that's used to raise large amounts of campaign money and is being used by candidates to reach niche audiences on a national and local level."


To a large extent, spending on the Internet is still by trial and error, with political groups and candidates trying to figure out the most effective way to reach potential supporters. "It's still experimental because Internet advertising went away (following the dot-com debacle), and just started coming back a couple of years ago," Quinn said.


Political spending on all forms of communications is expected to reach a record $2.68 billion this year, a 122.8 percent increase over the $1.2 billion spent in the 2000 presidential election year and a 65.8 percent jump from the $1.62 billion spent in the 2002 mid-term elections, according to PQ Media.


PQ Media, a research and consulting firm serving the media and entertainment industries, includes in its overall numbers spending on broadcast and cable TV, radio, newspapers, the Internet, outdoor medium, magazines, direct mail, public relations firms and promotions. The latter three are listed as marketing, while the rest fall under the category of advertising.


Along with the Internet, cable television and direct mail were among the top three mediums, in terms of growth, PQ Media said. Advertisers were attracted to both because of their ability to reach target audiences.


From 2000 to 2004, political spending increased 331.2 percent on cable TV and 151.4 percent on direct mail campaigns.


Seemingly old-fashioned broadcast television, however, remained king, commanding 56.1 percent of the total market, according to PQ Media. But while $800 million more was spent on broadcast television than in 2000, the medium's market share actually declined a bit from 2002 and was flat with 2000.


Nevertheless, while the Internet is gaining, it will still be many years before it surpasses the leading medium.


"For that to happen, we're talking a long period of time, and we're not ready to make that projection, yet," Quinn said.