Google will attempt to breathe life into the dying newspaper world as it expands a Print Ads initiative to more than 15^2 newspapers.
Extra, Extra, Google Expands Print Ads
Over 225 newspapers have signed on to one of the few lifelines available that can provide life-giving ad revenue where little to none had been found.
Google announced the Print Ads program expansion in a statement today, a day ahead of its quarterly earnings conference call. The program opens inventory in newspapers to hundreds of thousands of US-based clients in Google’s AdWords program.
It looks like the tweaking Google made during the smaller scale test of Print Ads appealed to big name publishers. New York Times VP of business development for advertising Todd Haskell lauded the “flexibility and control to set our own pricing” for Print Ads.
The process of merging AdWords advertisers with newspapers appeared in Google’s statement:
Advertisers and agencies access Google Print Ads through the AdWords interface and interactively plan a targeted media buy-in up to hundreds of newspapers across the United States. Once they have identified target newspapers, they enter a bid for the available ad space and upload a creative. Newspaper publishers then view the bids, and either approve or reject them, with an option to provide direct feedback to the advertisers. Detailed reports and electronic tear-sheets provide accountability, and Google automates billing and payments for further transactional efficiency.
It’s all very sophisticated, but the fundamental economics behind Google and the newspaper industry probably tilts the program in Google’s favor. Newsprint has suffered declining readership, while Google’s fortunes rise with every ad it places online.
Though the Times and probably other publications feel they are in control, and they do decide on the ads they accept, they likely have to face a reality where they take what Google and Print Ads offers them more often than not.
