Old media are the new battleground in the war for search engine dominance.
Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. have each announced major deals with newspaper chains in recent weeks, and Google is said to be close to its next big offline venture: radio.
“The lines are becoming increasingly blurred between old and new media, so it's imperative that both sides find opportunities to work together,” says Rick Broadhead, an Internet consultant based in Toronto.
Although different in structure, both deals underscore a rapprochement between traditionally rival sectors.
Early last month, Google announced an experiment involving 50 newspapers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, that allows advertisers to book newspaper ads through the technologies used to book paid search ads on Google.
Three weeks later, Yahoo announced its own 176-newspaper deal. The Yahoo arrangement begins with the cross-selling of help wanted ads, but could expand to a broader content-sharing agreement.
Michael Boland, a senior analyst with Kelsey Group, suggests that the deals are opposite. While the Google deal will see the search engine sending its advertisers to newspapers, the Yahoo deal is largely about content flowing in the other direction.
Observers expect the newspaper partnerships to become more alike over time.
“While the strategies are slightly different right now, the endgame is the same,” Mr. Broadhead says.
John Morton, an independent newspaper analyst in Silver Spring, Md., says the Google deal may represent a threat to ad agencies, because Google is treading on their traditional role of booking ads.
But the Yahoo deal is much more significant to newspapers as they try to reinvent themselves in the shadow of the Internet.
“The plus for newspapers is that this gives them access to a vast distribution network that they don't now have. Newspapers are primarily local, and this opens up for them the opportunity to have information, content, advertising and a lot of other things distributed far beyond their local markets,” Mr. Morton says.
The very fact that newspapers are willing to work with search engines marks a significant shift in thinking, he says.
In the 1990s, Microsoft struggled to find newspapers willing to partner in its local Web service Sidewalk. Back then, newspapers fiercely guarded their content and distribution channels, he says.
The next big offline move is said to be just weeks away.
Donna Bogatin, a blogger at ZDNet — an influential website for business technology news — reported Tuesday that Google is actively pitching Google Audio Ads as a way to give advertisers access to thousands of radio stations through Google's digital, automated platform.
According to presentation slides posted on Ms. Bogatin's blog, Google already has deals in place with 800 of a targeted 5,000 stations. Advertisers will be able to book their requirements online — specifying geographic reach and demographic targets — and Google will electronically search partnered ratio stations for available ad inventory.
Penry Price, Google's director of North American sales, recently said the company's foray into traditional media is a natural evolution for a company in the business of getting people the information they need when they need it, while making money off that relationship by delivering them to advertisers.
“The concept is that if we can be there wherever anybody is at any point in time — it's a very grandiose ambition, of course — but we could serve a relevant message to that person wherever they are, whenever they're looking for it,” he said in a recent visit to Toronto.
