Sorry, we seem to have inflicted life-threatening injuries on you. Do you need a hand?
You have only to look at the latest prognosis for newspaper advertising revenue (keep a barf bag handy) to understand why papers have become willing to clasp in friendship the hands that have been slapping them silly the past few years. After railing against the threat of Google, Yahoo and other online players who are siphoning off their traditional revenue streams, newspapers now find themselves in the awkward position of finding a bit of salvation from their tormentors. Yahoo has an advertising and content-distribution deal with a consortium of companies representing 260 papers, and today Google announced the expansion of its Print Ads program, in which advertisers buy newspaper space over the Web. The program started in November as a test with 70 papers; now it’s up past 225, and the door has been opened to all advertisers. “We believe newspapers are a critical component in the marketing ecosystem,” said Spencer Spinnell, head of sales strategy for Google Print Ads. “More than 50 percent of adults read newspapers every day, and marketers are always trying to reach new customers. It’s always a great multiplier effect when marketers think holistically both offline and online.” The program even boasts a testimonial from the New York Times. “Google Print Ads has brought in new advertisers who were either too small to consider advertising in a national newspaper or who hadn’t tried print advertising because their business was largely online,” said Todd Haskell, VP-business development and advertising at the Times. Through the swollen eyes of the battered industry, even a fist looks like a helping hand.
Seems like a no-brainer to me. I read the Merc first thing in the morning and then I’m at my computer. Many times, I find things in the print medium to check out online and vice-versa. Now, if the music industry could only see the light!
Wo the pain of high tech. If newspapers find themselves in this positon they only have themeselves to blame. In ‘97 we founded a compnay called infoPager which offered personalized newspapers and based on a combination of print and digital advertising - and met a lot newsapers. We were always amazed by the pompous attitude of the newspapers as if nothing could touch them. It was only the arrogance of the papers themselves which now finds them coming on all fours to Google and Yahoo — instead of being Google and Yahoo.