Google Buys Newspaper Ad to Show Why Newspaper Ads Don’t Work

Here’s a nice bit of multi-faceted irony for you: On Thursday, Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper ran a print ad for Google’s (directly competitive) search advertising business.

“You know who needs a haircut? People searching for a haircut,” the ad reads. “Maybe that’s why ads on Google work.”

Google’s ad ran in both the Globe‘s print and digital editions, as well as in the National Post, the Globe‘s main competitor.

Newspapers lose auto ad dollars

Dealers have turned the page on newspapers, at least when it comes to buying advertising in them.

The annual National Automobile Dealers Association's state-of-the-industry report released last week highlights just how much their choice of advertising media has changed in the past decade.

At the typical store, NADA says, newspapers accounted for more than half of total ad spending in 2001. Last year it was just 20 percent. The Internet, in contrast, accounted for 5 percent a decade ago and 25 percent in 2011.

But all that lost newspaper advertising didn't go to the Web. TV and radio spots, as well as direct mail, are up as a percentage of the total compared with 2001.

Dallas Morning News, LA Times Layoffs

There is no rest for the weary in the newspaper business, and precious little job security, either. This week brought a fresh round of layoffs affecting newsroom staffers at the Dallas Morning News, owned by A.H. Belo, and the Tribune Co.'s Los Angeles Times.

Both newspapers have already seen several waves of layoffs over the last couple of years, reflecting the broader trend in the newspaper business, which is enduring steep revenue declines.
 
The Dallas Morning News laid off 38 newsroom staffers, including a number of copy editors, deputy editors, reporters and two photographers, according to "DMNcuts," a blog devoted to tracking layoffs at the newspaper. This is the third round of layoffs at the newspaper since 2008, following the elimination of 40 positions in September 2008 and 200 positions in January 2009, although not all in the newsroom.
 
DMN owner A.H. Belo has cut its workforce from 3,400 full-time employees at the end of 2007 to 2,200 full-time employees at the end of 2010. The most recent round of cuts will lower the total to about 2,162, down 36.4% from the 2007 figure.
 
The Tribune Co. has laid off over 30 employees from its operations department, with staffers getting word of the cuts last Friday. This round of cuts follows several earlier waves that trimmed 150 positions in February 2008, 250 in July 2008, 75 in October 2008, 300 in January 2009, 80 in January 2010, and 20 in June-July 2011.
 
Tribune Co. has trimmed its workforce from around 23,800 in 2004 to approximately 14,000 currently, for an overall reduction of 41.2% over this period.
 
Although Tribune Co. has not released official financial results since it went private as an employee-owned company in 2007, in 2010 total revenues probably came to around $3.18 billion, according to court documents related to Tribune's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings -- down 44.5% from $5.73 billion in 2004.
 
In the second quarter of 2011, A.H. Belo's total revenues came to $114.5 million, down 40.4% from $192.1 million in the second quarter of 2007.