Google Testing Print Advertising

Google is testing Print Ads again.

Starting this week, advertisers will be able to begin bidding through an online marketplace for space in more than 50 major newspapers across the U.S.

It’s another reminder that, despite its constant stream of new online products and Web 2.0 acquisitions, Google is an advertising company first.

The tests will end in January.

The participating papers include: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Denver Post.

A Google spokesperson confirmed that over 100 advertisers will join the print advertising tests.

The spokesperson told internetnews.com that the newspapers will choose the type of ad inventory they offer online.

Google expects newspapers to offer one-quarter page-sized advertisements and smaller, the spokesperson said.

Print ads are not new for Google. Neither are tests in any number of other advertising mediums.

Google already uses terrestrial and radio air time for ads, especially since its acquisition of digital radio advertising provider dMarc Broadcasting for $102 million in cash this year. It’s also looking at television advertising, too. The company introduced video advertisements to its AdWords for content platform last summer.

Google reported 70 percent revenue growth versus the previous year’s third quarter, to $2.69 billion, and 48 percent earnings growth, to $733 million.

And according to Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post, much of that success is due to the fact that Google has over 50 percent of the search advertising market.