Google kills program to sell newspaper ads

Google has killed a program to help sell newspaper ads because it wasn't making enough money.
Photograph by: Filippo Monteforte/AFP, AFP

Google Inc. will kill a program to sell newspaper advertising because it is not making enough money, a blow to its efforts to expand its ad expertise beyond the Internet.

Google will shut the Print Ads program on Feb. 28, the company said on its blog yesterday afternoon. The two-year-old service was designed to help newspapers make money by enticing Google advertisers to expand into print newspaper sales.

"We weren't providing a meaningful revenue impact to our newspaper partners so we are focusing our efforts on how we can do that quickly and effectively using online tools," Google spokesman Brandon Mc-Cormick said.

Print Ads customers who booked campaigns can place ads through March 31, Google said on its blog.

For Google, which has built its larger-than-life reputation as a master of the online advertising business, shutting down the print program is a rare failure.

Google and newspapers struggle with a poor advertising market exacerbated by the world financial crisis. Google, an ad powerhouse that has expanded its empire as U.S. publishers are losing theirs, said last week it would lay off 100 full-time recruiters and close three engineering offices.

Print newspaper ad sales were $42.2 billion in 2007, down from a high of $48.7 billion in 2000, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

A Google spokesman declined to say how much money the search engine company and its newspaper partners expected to make from Print Ads.

"It's a very small part of our revenue stream," said New York Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis.

Newspapers tend to make about 90 per cent of their revenue, in varying degrees, from print ads, with Web sales making up the difference.

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