There have been mixed reports on the precise effect the current economic downturn will have on digital advertising, but a BusinessWeek article by Om Malik suggests that many ad-supported startups may not weather the storm.

"Last week, after ignoring the world's financial problems for almost a year, Silicon Valley woke up to find itself caught in the death grip of the credit crunch," Malik, who is best known for his GigaOm blog, wrote. "Those of us in the Valley are now reassessing our bullishness and trying to quickly figure out which sectors are going to get hit the hardest. The consensus that is fast emerging? Advertising."

Malik took particular aim at ad networks, which he identified as likely casualties of the economic crisis. But not all agree with Malik. In fact, many see strength in ad networks because they offer an efficient means of serving ads across the web. But for Malik, it's not the business model that has him worried but rather the likely decline in total ad spend. While projections for digital's growth remain positive, many in the industry have seen steady downward revisions to those predictions over the past few months.