Google Says Goodbye to Print
We learned today that Google has cut its Print Ad Program in an attempt to shave off underperforming products. This is undeniably big news for the print industry, not necessarily from a revenue perspective, but more from a competitive landscape outlook.
At its conclusion, the Google Print Ad Program garnered a little over 800 newspaper and magazine participants and when we saw the early adoption numbers, we thought, “It just might work”. However, what Google failed to do was create a newspaper led ambassador group, very similar to the Yahoo! Consortium set up. Given that newspapers find their comfort level within their core competency, print, having them independently grasp a blended online/print play, is asking too much. Yahoo! on the other hand, recognized this and as a result, fully partnered with their print cohorts – hence the Yahoo! Consortium. Therefore, unlike some of the other blogs or articles you may read on this item today, the product didn’t fail because advertisers weren’t interested, it failed because of poor set up and the lack of a long-term management plan.
Goolge still claims that they are committed to working with Newspapers on their online strategies.
