Google Auctioning Print Ad Space

Google will hold special auctions to sell ad space in 28 magazines as part of a plan to expand its venture into print advertising. Advertisers would be able to bid for quarter, half, and full-page ads within several popular magazines, including Martha Stewart Living, Car and Driver, and Computerworld among others.

The Mountain View, Calif., company is looking into ways of expanding its hugely successful online advertising business into more lucrative businesses of print, radio, and television advertising. This plan is only a small part of realizing that goal.

Google purchased dMarc Broadcasting in mid-January, and has looked into ways to move into the television market. Before word of Google's latest plans, the search engine had already been placing ads within three magazines and in the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.

If the tests in radio and print are successful, the company says the programs would be integrated into the AdWords service. Google says it aims to make AdWords a full-service ad agency capable of offering its customers programs across multiple platforms.

The auctions will run on the AdWords website through February 20 for U.S. AdWords customers. Google would notify winners of the auctions by March 3. While advertisers would not have control over the location of their ads, they would have creative control.