Google Goes Offline

Sez Ad Age:

Google, the new-media giant, now has a decidedly old-media partner: the Chicago Sun-Times.
In a quiet and small-scale experiment, Google is running classified-like ads in the pages of the Sun-Times, which so far is the only newspaper participating in the Web-search behemoth’s test.

The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, allows Google to fill what’s known as “remnant space” in the Sun-Times -- unsold space where the paper would normally run in-house ads. Google fills those spots with its own ads. The Google connection is hardly trumpeted: “Ads by Google” appears at the top of each box of ads in very small type.
...
The benefits for the Sun-Times are obvious: making money on previously unsold ad space, even if that money comes from the biggest player in a business that’s undercutting old-line newspapers.

“We were eager to help them shut us down,” joked Sun-Times Publisher John Cruickshank. “They’re buying ads. We like that.”

Google won’t comment on its own motivations. But one observer speculates that if the experiment pans out, Google could seek newspaper partners in other cities to bolster sales of locally oriented classifieds.

And score one for print:

A spokeswoman for Orland Park-based MPI Home Video, whose Google ad for DVD copies of the Chicago Bears “Super Bowl Shuffle” video appeared in the Sun-Times, said Google invited the company to participate free in the test because its ad, which had been on Google for the previous 15 months, had drawn a high number of hits.

The spokeswoman said sales of the DVD increased about 50% after the print ad ran, although that figure may also have been boosted by the Bears’ successful season and a larger marketing push.

“We’re very happy with the response,” she said.

I seem to recall Google doing something similar in print magazines some time last year. I don't know what ever happened with that.