Per a recent WSJ article; Google just announced that it was eliminating a program to sell print advertising for newspapers. Seemed like there wasn’t enough in it for both Google and the newspapers. It certainly didn’t fix the revenue model for our local paper; the Seattle PI, which is on track to be sold or closed down in less than 60 days.
Even more interesting is the fact that “Online advertising comprises about 97% of its revenue”, and we all know that on Google online advertising means those little text ads. Luckily for Google (and Point It), I don’t think that model will go away very soon. As an agency, we’re seeing increased demand as companies are looking to place larger bets on advertising that’s quantifiable like paid search advertising. That said, it also must be scary to Google and their investors to have all of their revenue eggs in one basket and therefore must inhibit them from placing elements on the Search Engine Results Pages that displace their gravy train.
