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Google and more than 50 newspapers nationwide are launching a test program that will place - in newspapers - Google ads for which the search giant cannot find room online.
Starting this week, Google will be redirecting overflow display ads to the printed page - in newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times and the Washington Post, which have been among a score or so participating in a trial of the program, writes the Chicago Tribune (via MarketingVox). Among other participating newspapers are the Boston Globe, Seattle Times and Philadelphia Inquirer.
During the test, which runs till February, Google will not take in any ad revenue; but it will take a share of revenue if the program continues. Advertisers will be able to select not only specific newspapers but also specific sections. Newspapers can choose to reject ads and set prices.
Though the program might attract new advertisers to newspapers, it may prompt established advertisers to also demand an online auction system; that would throw a monkey wrench in newspapers’ current ad pricing. As for Google, it does not seem concerned that it might be strengthening a rival medium.
“This is money that our advertisers would spend with us if we had the online inventory for them to spend it on,” according to Tom Phillips, Google’s director of print advertising.
For Google, the test is an important step in its plan to build a single computer system through which advertisers can promote their products in any medium, writes The New York Times. For the newspaper industry, already unsteady from the loss of both readers and advertisers, the system strikes an uncomfortable bargain: publishers get much-needed revenue but may well help make Google - already the largest seller of online advertising - even stronger.
According to the article, Google is trying to position itself as a friend to newspapers rather than a rival. Interestingly, some of the 100 or so companies that Google has lined up for the test have, indeed, done very little print advertising to date.
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