Google kills print ads business

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 21 Jan 2009 at 09:00

Google is to shut down its newspaper advertising business because it's not making enough money.

According to the company's blog, Google will shut the two-year-old service on 28 February.

The Print Ads service was designed to help newspapers make money by enticing Google advertisers to expand into print newspaper sales. Its closure is a blow to Google's efforts to expand its ad expertise beyond the internet.

"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," says Google spokesman Brandon McCormick.

Print Ads customers who booked campaigns can place ads through 31 March, Google says.

"You can see even someone who is a pure-play newspaper company is finding it difficult to survive in this market, and for Google, there were no near-term material revenue opportunities," says Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at Collins Stewart LLC.

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

Under the terms of the Print Ads program, Google AdWords customers could place newspaper ads in the same way they buy web page, radio or TV ad space.

Google also has been expanding its ad programs into radio and television, but it is unclear how it those are performing so far.