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Google Newspaper

Posted by Brian Reich on Jan 21, 2009 in Business, Business Models, Innovation, Journalism, Social Media | 0 comments

Google announced yesterday that it will close its business that sells advertising space in newspapers, saying the effort failed to deliver the impact it wanted (article). The program, which had attracted more than 800 US newspapers since it began in 2006, produced “good results” for some advertisers. But as the director of Google Print Ads, Spencer Spinnell, explained “…as we grow, it is important that we focus on products that can benefit the most people and solve the most important problems.”

Its easy for me to say now, but I knew that this project would failed when it started. Fewer people are reading newspapers. The reason: those papers aren’t delivering any news that readers can’t get online, or through another source. As readership drops, the value of the advertising declines, the papers lose money… more cutbacks are made on the content front… and the cycle continues. The efficiency of Google’s advertising tools, which have generated billions of dollars for the search giant online, couldn’t break the cycle.

What would break the cycle? Google needs to help the newspaper industry provide a better product to its customers. Google should use its sophisticated information management capabilities to filter news — from mainstream, blog, and other sources — and then deliver it to newspaper for delivery in print.

Not the most original idea, I know — but could it work?

I think so. Why not?

1) Google already aggregates news for its Google News (news.google.com) product. The system is far from perfect — it doesn’t draw from every news source available online, it doesn’t filter out redundant articles, etc…. but it gives users online a way to review a variety of different sources for news and information in a centralized way and see what stories are dominating the mainstream media world.

2) Google already ties information to the location of the user. Just as a user is able to get directions from one location to the next through Google Maps, or find the closest restaurant to a certain location through a simple search, readers want to be able to easily tie news content to their personal, and geographic interests.

3) The newspapers need good, local content. Newspapers have found that one way to stretch their limited resources is by filling most of their pages with articles from wire services. As a result, a full newspaper is created but fewer local news stories appear in print. News and other content that is local, relevant, and in some cases produced by the community in which the paper exists, is widely available online — and if delivered to the editors/publishers, certainly better than nothing at all.

Its not a perfect solution, but it could work. At least until the business model for newspapers is re-worked to reflect the changing nature of our society and their expectations for news, it something that could keep newspapers printing and people reading.

You thoughts?

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Brian Reich

Brian is Managing Director of little m media which provides strategic guidance and support to organizations around the use of the internet and technology to facilitate communications, engagement, education, and mobilization. He is well known for his expertise in new media, web 2.0, social networks, mobile, community, ecommerce, brand marketing, cause branding, and more. Reich, the author of Media Rules!: Mastering Today’s Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience (Wiley 2007). He blogs at Thinking About Media and contributes as a Fast Company Expert. Previously, Reich was a principal of EchoDitto, one of the most successful online communications agencies in the nation, Director of New Media for Cone Inc, a brand strategy and communications agency in Boston and a Senior Strategic Consultant and Director of Boston Operations for Mindshare Interactive Campaigns, an interactive public affairs agency. From 2000 – 2004, Brian ran how own strategic communications firm, Mouse Communications. Reich has worked in and around politics, including helping to direct dozens of campaigns across the country. He spent two years as Vice President Gore’s Briefing Director in the White House, handling both official activities and activities during his 2000 presidential campaign. Brian serves on the board of Investigate West, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to the art and craft of investigative and narrative journalism. Brian served as an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University in Washington, DC and is currently teaching a course on consumer behavior and marketing at Columbia University in New York. Brian attended the University of Michigan and is a graduate of Columbia University. He and his wife, Karen Dahl, live in New York City with their son, Henry.

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