Google Inc. will stop selling ads on broadcast radio stations this spring, marking the Internet search leader’s latest flop in off-line media.
The retreat announced Thursday is just the latest example of how the recession has caused even highly profitable companies like Google to reassess their priorities and toss out the deadwood.
The impending closure of the radio ad service extends a series of cost-cutting measures that have signaled Google’s management is bracing for leaner times after years of robust revenue growth that enabled the Mountain View-based company to spend freely and gamble on new ventures.
Google’s other austerity measures have included abandoning an ad program for newspapers, shutting down several unprofitable online services and jettisoning company contractors as well as at least 100 full-time employees.
As many as 40 more workers could be laid off after Google pulls the plug on the radio ad service at the end of May. Google currently has about 20,200 employees.
Emboldened by its dominance of the Internet ad market, Google expanded into broadcast radio three years ago with the purchase of a service called dMarc for more than $120 million. The company could have been obligated to pay an additional $1.1 billion if certain financial targets had been hit, but the push into radio evidently didn’t pay off.
“While we’ve devoted substantial resources to developing these products and learned a lot along the way, we haven’t had the impact we hoped for,” Susan Wojcicki, Google’s vice president of product management, wrote in a company blog.
About 1,600 radio stations had been participating in the program, according to Google.
Instead of trying to place ads on broadcast radio, Google said it will try to deploy some of the technology for audio streamed on the Internet. The company will try to sell the part of the operation that automated the process of placing ads on broadcast radio.
Although it’s exiting newspaper and broadcast radio advertising, Google will still try to distribute television commercials designed to appeal to viewers’ individual interests. NBC Universal, Bloomberg TV and Hallmark Channel are among the networks participating in the television ad service, which Google started in 2007.
Google’s inability to diversify has left the company dependent on Internet advertising, which accounted for virtually all of its $21.8 billion in revenue last year. Even so, the company remains well positioned to grow for years to come because advertisers are expected to steadily increase their online spending to connect with customers migrating to the Internet from print publications, radio and TV.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More