Show Google ends project fj Alana Los Angeles Times Google Inc said Tuesday it would shut down an advertising partnership with more than newspapers a key part of the Internet giants giant's effort to expand into ovine offline media because it didn't make enough money The Print Ads program which was launched with 50 newspapers in November 2006 allowed advertisers to use Google's online services to bid on space in print much as they do for search-engine search ads The service will end Feb 28 While we hoped that Print Ads would create a anew anew anew new r revenue venue stream for newspapers and produce more relevant advertising for consumers the product has not created the impact that we or our partners wanted said Spencer director of Go Google ogle Print Ads in a statement on the company's blog Google has recently closed some experimental products and trimmed its staff to better deal with the global recession The Mountain View Calif company recently wound down deals with outside contractors and vendors cut its recruiting staff b by and closed three engineering offices It It also said last week it was ending uploads to Google Video closing its mobile social networking service and shuttering Google Catalog Search in belt- belt tightening ng mode just like everybody else said Anthony Valencia media and nd entertainment analyst for Group in Los Angeles Google is scheduled to tor r report port its quarter fourth-quarter earnings Thursday Its third- third quarter profit announced in October 2008 was strong but the company had already begun to cut back backon on capital expenses The Print Ads program faced an increasingly challenging advertising climate Print ad revenue fell 16 percent in the second quarter of 2008 and 19 percent in the third quarter according to the Newspaper Association of America The Print Ads approach was problematic said Gordon Borrell chief executive of media research and consulting firm finn Borrell Associates Inc Because Google used an auction to sell ads major advertisers could get lower rates by canceling their contracts with newspapers and instead buying space through Google Newspapers started refusing to run such ads from marketers that had canceled contracts Borrell said Newspapers probably found themselves in a situation where their valuable advertising was going at a low rate and they weren't willing to accept a alot alot alot lot of those bids he said One of Google's rivals Yahoo Inc says it isn't scaling back work with the newspapers in its Newspaper Consortium program It also was was' launched in 2006 but helps newspapers put ads online not in print Lem Lloyd Yahoos Yahoo's vice president of US U.S. partnerships said the company was going full steam ahead Google has a famously experimental culture encouraging its engineers to spend 20 percent of their time working on projects they're passionate about Its It's not surprising that some initiatives dont don't pan out said Sarah Epps media analyst with Forrester Research They work on a lot of products that never see seethe seethe the light of f day she said This is not necessarily a verdict on the futility of print advertising |