A story in this week’s BusinessWeek, on Google’s per click rate downturn shows that if print is serious about proving it’s worth as a medium which can drive response, this is a perfect opportunity to gain some ground:
"The downturn is finally getting to Google," says Jeffrey Lindsay, a senior analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein
who has an outperform rating on Google’s stock. The drop in revenue per
click shows that Web users are clicking on ads to comparison-shop
without buying products, and buying lower-cost items online compared
with a year ago, Lindsay says. Those behaviors mean ads are less
valuable to marketers, and result in lower payments to Google"
I suspect it also has to do something to do with results – Google is driving poorer results causing advertisers to point their marketing dollars elsewhere. Now if newspapers and magazines can begin to show advertisers that print can yield a competitive ROI, there should be some good opportunities for print. Of course, that would depend upon print taking it upon itself to measure and report results. The opportunity appears to be there – even Google loses advertisers when it underperforms. At Mediabids.com, we measure the results of thousands of ads each week for our per-inquiry ad program, by far the largest print per-inquiry program in the world. We see first-hand that print works and outperforms other mediums – when measured.
The Print Observer - Newspaper & Magazine Advertising Insights 