Google's foray into print-ad sales is showing every sign of turning into an extended stay. Following a limited test of its Print Ads program, which lets advertisers make offers online for newspaper ad inventory, the company has opened the gates to any Google advertiser and increased the number of participating papers to cover most of the country's most populous areas. The test, launched in November 2006, was an alpha trial; now Print Ads is in general release.
Yesterday, Gawker Media's Jezebel unveiled an undoctored photo of Faith Hill that, after some Photoshopping, landed on the cover of Redbook. It was a good get and a good point to make -- even a naturally beautiful woman is chopped and cropped for magazine covers. Today, though, in explaining just what it is that upsets them about it, they work their way around to laying the blame at the marketers who advertise in the pages of those magazines.
For decades, most clients held reviews and invited "a select number" of agencies to participate. That select group was culled down from a wider group, once the client did some internal research and some asking around. Seemed to work well for a long time. Now I am seeing a trend that is troubling. Instead of inviting three or four agencies to pitch, clients increasingly are asking two or three times that number. We just went through three pitches
Like Print or TV, Websites Must Capture Consumers' Attention With Beautiful Images. Too Bad That Concept Still Escapes Marketers. The internet is as important an invention as the printing press. It's in its infancy. It's unsettling. It's astounded us by reflecting back both our universality and our diversity. We see the enormous, fantastic and unimaginable successes: YouTube couldn't possibly be worth $1.6 billion, could it?
Google's foray into print-ad sales is showing every sign of turning into an extended stay. Following a 
Yesterday, Gawker Media's Jezebel unveiled an undoctored photo of Faith Hill that, after some Photoshopping, landed on the cover of Redbook. It was a good get and a good point to make -- even a naturally beautiful woman is chopped and cropped for magazine covers. Today, though, in explaining just what it is that upsets them about it, they work their way around to laying the blame at the marketers who advertise in the pages of those magazines.
For decades, most clients held reviews and invited "a select number" of agencies to participate. That select group was culled down from a wider group, once the client did some internal research and some asking around. Seemed to work well for a long time. Now I am seeing a trend that is troubling. Instead of inviting three or four agencies to pitch, clients increasingly are asking two or three times that number. We just went through three pitches
Like Print or TV, Websites Must Capture Consumers' Attention With Beautiful Images. Too Bad That Concept Still Escapes Marketers. The internet is as important an invention as the printing press. It's in its infancy. It's unsettling. It's astounded us by reflecting back both our universality and our diversity. We see the enormous, fantastic and unimaginable successes: YouTube couldn't possibly be worth $1.6 billion, could it?
