Google said that it has expanded its advertising system to offer
newspaper ads to its customers, and that 50 major newspapers have
signed up to carry the ads in a three month trial. The company said
that it has invited over 100 existing advertisers to
participate.
Google will use its existing ad booking system to sell
advertising space in newspapers that would otherwise remain
unsold.
"For advertisers, it gives them access to a network of
newspapers through an online interface and the ability to
potentially reach a new customer base," Google spokesman Michael
Mayzel told news agency Reuters.
In contrast to a previous Google experiment, though, the company
will only be a broker between advertisers and newspapers. Google
had previously run auctions where it bought and resold advertising
space in magazines that the company halted because there was not
enough demand for the service.
In the newly planned service an advertiser will use Google's
system to select a newspaper and what space they would like and
upload the advert to the system. The newspaper publisher will
retain control of the advert and control whether or not to publish
it.
Industry estimates say that $48 billion is spent in the US on
newspaper advertising. In an irony unlikely to be lost on
publishing executives, it is the growth of online advertising,
which is dominated by Google, which is causing newspaper ad
revenues to fall.
Even the New York Times last week described the newspaper
publishing industry as being in "freefall", with online advertising
to blame. Executives may balk at handing control of a portion of
their own market to the one company which is doing more than any
other to move advertising revenue online.
The advantage of the system to newspapers, though, is that the
system would be largely self-operating and the space filled would
otherwise earn no revenue for the paper.
Google said that it would not earn any fee during the trial, but
would take a cut of booked ads once the full commercial service is
launched. The company is said to take around a 20% cut of online
ads which it places.
