Remember the days where traditional media publishers snubbed the thought of syndication or partnerships with online only media forums? Publishers thought that they knew their market better than anyone and as a result, would be able to provide a level of service, from point A to B, in the fulfillment process that would encourage any customer to stay. Well those days are completely gone and Google’s further development to their Google Print Ads suite ferments that.

Late yesterday Google unveiled their free online tool to aid their AdWord customers with creating display and text ads for newspapers.

As we all recall, Google ‘officially’ launched Google Print Ads in July, to facilitate their AdWord customers placing ads, within the Google network of newspapers. The service allowed AdWord patrons to simply choose from a list of participating newspapers and bid on ad space, based on geography, circulation, and readership and so on. If the newspaper publisher approved the bid, the two would then start to work on ad copy, image layout and perhaps countless proofs. All this has changed, for the better, with Google’s online tool launch.

The announcement of the free ‘print ad creator’ makes the print transition that much easier for small to medium sized businesses, with little capacity or bandwidth in advertising dollars and time. With the online tool, all that is required from an advertiser is a quick upload of an image, the entering of some text and voila! Advertisers also have the flexibility to go in and edit their ads, including resizing images.

From a complete review of the process, publishers begin to benefit greatly from the program. They now have the opportunity to gain revenue from the small to medium sized business arena, with expending little costs or people power. The program streamlines costs for content processing and leaves a positive effect on publisher margins.

Some of the newspapers in the Google network are:

• Chicago Tribune
• Houston Chronicle
• Los Angeles Times
• New York Times

See Full List

Google Print Ads at this point, appear to be exclusive to the US, but based on the program results, I would expect it to surpass its current geographical boundaries, relatively soon.

written by Beverly Crandon