Google Lends a Helping Hand
by Donna Cooper, Jr. Copywriter
Ever since college, I’ve been hearing people predict the end of newspapers. It may be a stretch but, but it reminds me vaguely of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and how the old man kept trying to warn him, “Beware! The Ides of March!” The twist of course, being that after Brutus dealt the final blow (Et Tu, Brute?), he didn’t pick Caesar up and rush him to the hospital in order to revive him.
Soothsayers have been claiming that, thanks to the Internet, newspapers were soon to meet their end. Short of standing on the streets ringing a bell and wearing a sandwich board, they’ve said it’s only a matter of time before the Newspaper becomes extinct. Why? Simply because the younger generation reads less and less. They do more of their news foraging online and get a majority of their information from either that or from Television. But, what really hurt the newspapers was that the advertisers followed those readers to the Internet.
Unlike Brutus, Google is attempting to save the newspaper’s life, removing the dagger, if you will. Google has been manning a pilot program working with daily newspapers across the US selling ad space to its online advertisers. Having proven successful, Google is expanding the program that launched last year to a test market of about 50 newspapers. Now, they will be servicing more than 225 papers across the United States and have retained 98% of the initial test market.
While, Google, and companies like it, are the reason for the prophesied demise of print media, Google has stepped up to the plate to ensure its survival. What a pal!
To read this article, click here.
July 19th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
More in-depth, the media conglommerate is adding print advertising to its arsenal. Their strategy is to put advertising decisions in the hands of many and the ability to purchase media an easy task. The initial problem that I see with this is that most people know they need to advertise their product or service, but don’t know how to do it. That’s where an ad agency comes in to offer strategic planning and the where, why, when, what and how to the equation. Just placing ads is the easy part and should be available to all, and this is what Google believes it can offer. However wasted advertising dollars on media usually has a prolonged negative effect on advertising in general. When a company/person buys advertising they expect results in sales, awareness, both or other desired goal. When it doesn’t work, it’s the advertising’s fault in their mind. Strategic planning is key and continual analysis based on the goals of the campaign. This is not a product/service offered by Google and I’m afraid they will alienate more people by selling newspaper space without a plan and not give the buyers the desired results. Hire a professional and work with them to develop a goal list, a strategic plan, action steps, tracking/analysis and then increase those efficiencies and eliminate the waste.
July 20th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Fun fact for the day:
Google recieves 3 billion inquiries/searches every day world wide.
Where did people go to find the answers to all those questions before the internet and google exsisted?