In a blog post published yesterday, Spencer Spinnell (Director of Google Print Ads) announces what we have all expected but did not know when it would hit: the Google Print Ads program (also known ad AdSense for Newspapers) will officially stop on February 28 2009.
“While we hoped that Print Ads would create a new revenue stream for newspapers and produce more relevant advertising for consumers, the product has not created the impact that we — or our partners — wanted.” says Spinnell.
The reasons behind this strategic decision should not be a surprise for anybody: yet another measure of cutting down costs by the Internet giant. The eCPMs running through the Print Ads program must have followed trend and dropped beyond the level at which Google would make business sense out of them. Additionally, Google seems to have entered a cost-cutting frenzy: lay-offs, shutting down offices, abandoning or merging programs / products are all the rage nowadays.
Spinnell gives a rather blunt explanation (or lack thereof!): “We will continue to devote a team of people to look at how we can help newspaper companies. It is clear that the current Print Ads product is not the right solution, so we are freeing up those resources to try to come up with new and innovative online solutions that will have a meaningful impact for users, advertisers and publishers.” I can almost hear plenty of voices in the industry saying “I told you so!” with regard to that product, but I guess that’s what happens when portfolio products in times of recession.
The advertisers who still have campaigns booked with Google Print Ads will continue to see their ads running until March 31 2009.
Read Spinnell’s blog post here.
