Google to Sell Newspaper Ads - Benefits of the Program
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The benefits of the program for Google should be pretty obvious, so I'll skip over those for the moment. So let's take a look at the benefits of the program for the other two participants: advertisers and newspapers. To understand that, it helps to have a little background.
Newspapers have been suffering as the Internet has been becoming more and more popular. They have seen seriously declining subscription rates and newsstand sales. Where they've been hurt most, though, has been in the area of classified advertising. As with many websites, newspapers get their revenue from their advertising; splash ads that take up part or even all of a page may sell for a lot of money, but it's the classified ads that make up a newspaper's bread and butter. Sites such as Craig's List, Monster.com, eBay, and others have been luring smaller advertisers away from the classified section and into online venues. Some companies don't even advertise job openings in local papers anymore, but go directly to Monster.com or CareerBuilder, or simply advertise the opening on their own web page.
Faced with this kind of crisis, it behooves any newspaper that wants to stay alive to experiment with new formats in the hope of generating interest. Gannet, for example, said that it will begin looking to reader-created "citizen journalism" by mining online community discussions for articles as well as make other changes that will bring online and offline staffs closer together. The fact that the newspapers themselves control whether they will accept any ads from Google, and which ones, gives them the flexibility - and revenue - they need while they go about reinventing themselves for the digital era.
As for the advertisers, it gives them exposure to an advertising medium they may never have used before. Thus, it lets them reach a fresh audience. And it gives them a certain degree of control. Take EBags, an online handbag and luggage store that has not yet ventured into print advertising. Peter Cobb, co-founder and marketing director of the company, notes that choosing certain sections in certain papers may not be identical to targeting via keywords, but offers similar benefits. "You can target professional males in business and sports sections and women in living and style" sections, Cobb observed.
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