Google’s dreams of world domination may be dwindling (at least its dreams of ruling the advertising world). Today, it announced that it will no longer be selling print ads in newspapers. (Yes, Google sold contextual ads that appeared in 800 papers. It also sells radio and TV ads). In a blog post, Spencer Spinnell, Director of Google Print Ads, writes:
While we hoped that Print Ads would create a new revenue stream for newspapers and produce more relevant advertising for consumers, the product has not created the impact that we — or our partners — wanted. As a result, we will stop offering Print Ads on February 28. For advertisers who have campaigns already booked, we will place their ads through March 31.
We launched our Print Ads program with 50 newspaper partners in November 2006 and, with the cooperation of our partners, were able to expand the network to include more than 800 U.S. newspapers.
Man, newspapers can’t get a break. Even Google won’t subsidize them.
Is that good news? can you imagine Google dominating another medium?
what’s the point of them helping out print anyways? the right strategy all along was to stay away from print for Google
this was always a stupid idea.
One hit wonder = Google
No hit wonder = poster of above message
Google a one hit wonder?
Google Docs, Gmail, Google News, Google Calendar….
the list goes on man!
BestJobsOnline
http://tinyurl.com/7uj5ay
Google docs, Gmail, Google News, Calendar Hits. It is called also ran products.
Damn comment box…..won’t accept ” sign.
Actually the post about one hit wonder is right.
We are talking about Google as a business, not Google as a nonprofit organisation.
Google has one business that generates almost all of its profit.
How much money do you think Google makes from its other products? It costs Google $50 per user to run Google Earth, and $25 per user to run docs. These are great services, but without the subsidy from search, they would be like all the other web 2.0 “businesses” that make no money.
Honestly, when is the last time you actually purchased a newspaper ? I can’t even begin to think of the last time I did.
Newspapers are outdated and will someday become irrelevant and forgotten.
Joseph, your ignorance about newspapers is beyond comprehension. I get a newspaper delivered everyday–actually, three of them. PLUS, I’m online 7-days a week and look at news headlines as they catch my eye. So I utilize both, Internet and print on a daily basis. Funny thing is, where do you think the Internet gets THEIR news? From the newspaper and AP reporters, Bozo. Without them there is no content on the Internet. So I repeat, your ignorance is beyond my comprehension.
I wonder when they quit the radio and tv programs too? It has to be before Q3. I’ve heard or seen no headway made in either the buy or sell side of those markets.
Bad News Newspapers {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/w0lzTV4gUn_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”Bad News Newspapers ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/Kyarx2pfdB”}}}
Good move. This never made sense to me.
It would make sense to you, Mike, if you’re a businessperson who utilizes print advertising. My company’s demographic fit print. Google print added at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for my company. The interface was intelligently engineered, and we saved many thousands of dollars going through the Google print bidding process with publishers vs. dealing directly with the publishers. I will sorely miss it. Now we have to deal directly with the sales staff of these same publications—NEVER A GOOD DEAL. I will wait for Google to bring print back…but I won’t hold my breath. Aren’t there any marketers and entrepreneurs who read this blog? I guess we’re the only ones who GET IT.
With 63.5% of the search market–and climbing–as of Dec. 2008, guess Google doesn’t need newspapers. Focusing more on its core business will probably pay bigger dividends.
Agreed. always a terrible idea. will do the same with Radio and TV as their advantages there are limited.
Google’s attempt at slowly creeping offline into our homes through our front doorstep = Fail
I’m not quite sure if their goal of world domination had dwindled. What is certain is that required return and expectations are much lower today than say 8 months ago. This means that Google does not have to sustain the ROI they’ve generated recently and thus they do not have to take huge or maybe untested risks.
Newspapers are dying anyway. I guess I didnt miss anything by not looking to deep into the print ads after all.
No, Kyle, they’re NOT dying…unless you let them.
I politely disagree with argument about newspaper as a lost medium. Agreed they are not able to sustain 50-100 year old business model and need to re-invent themselves.
Having said that, I hope nobody disagrees that “relevency” theory applies to them as much as to web, tv and radio. Its a different matter about how to get there, Google Print Ads was step in the right direction.
Newspaper is going down in a big way. they should have asked for bail-out money while it was still around.
R.I.P. Newspapers!
lol
stop telling that newspapers and magazines are dead, they have been dead for computer guys since the day the computer guy found out news groups on the internet. they never died for ordinary people, why do you think everyone is a nerd like you or will become a nerd one day?
newspapers are here to stay for at minimum 20 years. it makes me sick when i read this nostradamus like comments from people who has no clue about world trends and thinks everything inside computer box.
Newspapers are slowly dying, even for the “non-nerdy” types, and within 25 years or so will be all but dead except for many of the well-entrenched little ones and the really big ones.
Good move for Google I think…print advertising is dying a nasty death.
Well, good Google isn’t succeeding with everything.
It would kind of weird if they owned and controlled anything in the marketing value chain.
This is stupid idea in the first place. Why wasting money on time on what will become extinct in the years to come?
RIP Newspapers.
Sarah.
http://www.StartupBuzz.com
Newspapers feature Yesterday’s News! Nuff said!
Teh simplist way to see how newspapers are going down, is htat in NYC, and i woudl assume other cities, there are free daily newspapers that tons of people are reading, instead of buying the regular paid newspapers. Just a matter of time until they are all free, paid for by advertisers.
http://www.techsupport4nyc.com
google shooting a lot of bricks lately
Did you know that the Myspace CEO kissed Paris Hilton… sooo exciting…
wow
I think their next thing is mobile advertising thats y they have started google channel in india.I think this medium is still not utilized .
Good newspapers will live.
Good newspapers will survive…
The rest will die and the big fish will eat ‘m up..
well, I guess they did not have very important newspapers in their portofolio and the impact was not that hoped for.
no need for that
http://thecashc...am.blogspot.com
With only a few obscure newspaper as participants, this program would fail for sure. In part because Google does not understand how to manage and encourage change. They want to change the world in a direction that is not supported by many and they failed as a result of that. The same is being fought with other Google products.
Okay, now you REALLY are ignorant. “a few obscure newspapers as participants”…..WERE YOU A GOOGLE PRINT ADVERTISER? No, but I am. Did you know 800 newspapers around the country were in involved with Google’s print program? No, of course not. Little obscure newspapers like, um, let’s see: The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Times, The Dallas Morning News, and the list goes on and on. In fact, they had every major newspaper offered throughout the United States—the only exception was the Wall Street Journal. I say HOORAY for Google securing the best and biggest (and medium sized) publications across America for their print program. So do your damn research before you spout out what you don’t know. Thankfully, others may learn a little from my posts. Seems like there are a lot of “know it alls” on this blog who actually know NOTHING.
Hey UptownSeattle,
Have you heard of TapInko.com? They are picking up where Google Print Ads left off. Check out their website http://www.tapinko.com. I was amazed at how easy the process was. Greater Media Newspapers seem to support the product. Here are some articles in case you are interested. I myself think that it is better than Google Print Ads. Hope it is useful.
http://www.phil...cle.php?id=1899
http://www.scom...ertising-arena/
People do not read newspapers anymore. Sites like craigslist.org – oodle – stumblehere.com – kijiji – backpage.com have killed newspapers main revenue source … classifieds. Its no wonder google is bailing out.
Again, you’re an idiot. Without newspapers, there is no content on the Internet. Get a clue, and while you’re at it, pick up a damn newspaper. When you go online, you’ll see all the stories the Internet sites bought from the AP or publisher. Yes, get it????
I think it is too early to pull the plug on this one.. Google’s mistake was that they did not offer Print Ads for magazines, too.. and this auction model, with final approval from the publisher – was not very well thought out..
Thank God, someone who gets it BESIDE me. Bless you. You’re absolutely right–they missed the mark by not adding print ads for magazines as well…but to Google’s credit, their print program was the best around. Made my company tons of money. Again, I repeat, it will be sorely missed. If anyone from Google is reading this, or my posts, PLEASE BRING THE PRINT PROGRAM BACK. Bigger, better and stronger.
Could this be the future of print newspapers?
http://mmx.type...gmentation.html
The competition will consilodate until a few bug players own the market. ust not enough money for a few smaller pappers and companies.
News paper is still one best medium for ads but when we talk about our online business, i think there are only few peoples there who read ad in news paper and go online and search for it.
Online advertisement is more batter for business that works online.
http://deals.fa.../#comment-52030
google is not only dreaming of ruling in advertising… but also in whole online world
google really rules in online world
why my comment is not comming?
To quote the Google print ad promoting its own product: “How can traditional newspaper advertising compete with innovative, data-rich, easy-to-use online advertising? Make it innovative, data-rich and easy to use.”
This venture was doomed from the start. Advertising is an intrusive medium and you can’t intrude with “data.” People need to be moved, not informed. They can inform themselves, which is why Google search has been so successful.
It may be true that off-line media is dying, although non-tech savvy readers are still relying on hard-copy media. And my opinion is that People does not like reading on-line, and the proof is Amazon’s monochrome kindle success, which was made of a paper-like LCD.
Lets have some other media evolutions such as that Free newspapers that depend on advertising revenue are dominating the market. A 100-year newspapers industry needs to re-invent its but I don’t think it will die soon.
If that were true, then most of the world’s newspapers would not be in such a sad state.
The truth is: most of the world prefers NOT to pay for newspapers, when they can access the news from their PC or smart phone.
In my humble opinion, you’re both right. People do read the news from newspapers (the TechCrunch crowd isn’t indicative of the general population). But for the things that newspapers make most of their money on (or at least used to), which were classifieds, jobs, autos and real estate, users and advertisers have gravitated online. (CraigsList, Monster, Cars.com, Zillow). That’s what hurts the newspapers the most. Those areas were subsidizing the newsrooms, and now the revenues from those areas are significantly diministed. So the newpapers need to right-size their news organizations to get profitable again.
Media audiences continue to fragment by content preferences and choice of the platform. Fragmentation is defined by demographic (young/old, male/female), psychographic (digiratti, sports fans, fashionistas, etc.), and lifestyle (public transport commuters vs card drivers, urban vs suburban, etc.). People will still read newspapers. The point is that some will prefer to read from cover to cover, whereas other will look only for sports or lifestyle sections. Some will read them in print, others in Kindle. Audiences will be shrinking (Twitter-only news readers, RSS users, etc.), but engagement with content and platform will be increasing.
Consumers want to be in control, consumers want to have a choice, and consumers want to receive only information that they are interested in.
Actually, most of the world who truly READS, they would rather jump off a cliff than read an entire newspaper from their smart phone or PC. Obviously you haven’t picked up and enjoyed a newspaper in your life. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be speaking for “most of the world.” lol.