Google, as part of a series of cutbacks, is eliminating its Print Ads program, which had 800 newspapers and other print sources participating. The program, which began in November 2006 with 50 newspaper partners, stops selling new placement Feb. 28.
The Print Ads program, launched for Google by online pioneer Tom Phillips (DejaNews, Starwave, Go Network, …

We’re just about ready to go with Interactive Local Media 2008, which is Nov. 19-21 in Santa Clara, in the heart of Silicon Valley. It should be a very important, game-defining event — and the first one for The Kelsey Group in the new BIA Advisory Services era (BIA Financial Network acquired Kelsey last week, adding …

Fox Interactive Media’s MySpace is seeking to jump-start local and small-business advertising by launching a homegrown Self-Serve Ad Service. Initial advertisers are likely to be rock bands — the first major segment to have adopted MySpace itself — but the service hopes to move up the food chain as time goes on.
Fox is making several …

OK, we’ve got the format(s) and “best and brightest” speaker roster set for Interactive Local Media: Extending Local Channels, which is Nov. 19-21 in Santa Clara, California, next to San Jose.
At the top of the list is Angie Hicks, “the Angie” from Angie’s List, and Rodney Rice from ServiceMagic. They’ll tell it all during one-on-one …

Real Cities, the national ad network owned by McClatchy, has been sold to fast rising Centro. Or at least, the Real Cities brand has been sold, along with access to Real Cities’ list of 250 national advertisers. The network’s local media affiliates, however, which are mostly newspapers, aren’t included.
It isn’t really a big deal in …

TMP Directional Marketing, an interactive and print advertising agency specializing in local services and franchises like HoneyBaked Ham and The Men’s Wearhouse, is seeing a slight rise in verticalization, more performance-based solutions and ever increasing use of online promotions to drive offline sales, according to longtime industry vet Gregg Stewart, a senior VP at the …

The 32-company-strong Yahoo Newspaper Consortium, which covers 41 percent of Sunday newspaper circulation, has 700 to 900 reps selling Yahoo inventory, with a couple of the newspapers selling more than $1 million in annual inventory, reports Yahoo’s Lem Lloyd, who we know from previous stints with Oodle and Knight Ridder Digital. We talked to Lloyd …

It is an awkward time for a company to be holding an affiliate meeting right after it has been sold. This week, ShopLocal was put in this position for its long planned meeting with 120 retail partners in Chicago (where I was a speaker). The company has just been consolidated by Gannett, which bought off …

Local.com yesterday announced an ad distribution deal with Hearst-owned White Directory Publishers. The deal will bring Local.com’s display ad inventory to White’s national sales force.
In this way it presents an opportunity for White to appeal to national advertisers that want to target locally. Local targeting will happens through Local.com’s geographically relevant traffic sources — both …

Classifieds have made their way to video (See RealPeopleRealStuff). But how about video on mobile phones? That’s a new effort being tried out in Portugal, where high-speed 3G phones are prevalent, but less than 40 percent of the population has Internet access.
The video ads are being provided by Ocasio, a shopper publication with a print circulation …

The New York Times is set to recruit small-business advertisers via a deal with AdReady, the Seattle-based ad agency that provides a choice of 600 free templates for banners, customization tools and usage reports.
The Times will recruit its own advertisers via in-house promotions. Advertisers will have a choice of 14 sections of the site that …

Search has its limitations for local businesses. In fact, many would just as soon place media rich display ads, but for the expense and creative challenge of developing the ads. That’s the hurdle being addressed by AdReady, a venture-backed Seattle company that has created hundreds of ready-made ads that can be selected on a self-serve …

I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the Easter holiday talking with friends and family about the economy and how they are dealing with the budget crunch we are all experiencing. One of the common threads of all these conversations has been the need to stay close to home, combine shopping trips and call …

S&MM online columnist Robert Grede shared some interesting insights in a recent article on how local advertisers can survive in a down economy and what local media sales reps should be communicating to their advertisers and prospects. While many of these items are not surprising, it is surprising how local media reps can get so …

Neal Polachek and I had the opportunity this morning to sit down with Mike Galgon, cheif advertising strategist for Microsoft. Galgon was brought on board as part of Microsoft’s $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive, which he cofounded in 1997.
The $6 billion price tag was was roughly 2x premium at the time of purchase, 10X revenue, …

Spot Runner has gone into the local reseller channel in a major way by acquiring Weblistic, a company headed by Ketan Shah (and whose president is Yellow Pages Commando Dick Larkin). The company has 50 employees and is headquartered in Fremont, near San Jose, with additional offices in Carlsbad, CA, near San Diego and …

When it comes to small businesses on the Web, is it really only about video? AdReady, a new Seattle-based company started by Classmates.com alum and backed by Madrona and Bain Capital, thinks banners are really where the impact is.
Local marketers who test online video ads have seen “they can’t hold a candle to a …

It is hard for me to comprehend, but we are finally finished with ILM:07. We were grateful to have had 650 interesting and enthusiastic attendees from all over the world, 72 stimulating speakers, a full load of sponsors and an excellent partnership with SES.
Our next conference, April 30-May 2 at the Westin in Seattle, will …

Interactive Local Media: 07 is ready to roll Nov. 28-30 in L.A. That’s next Wednesday through Friday!
The show, which is being produced in partnership with SES Local, has attendees from all over the world. One exec told me he is coming on Wednesday, taking the red eye to New York that night due to …

The numbers are looking very, very good for the Interactive Local Media:07 conference in L.A. Nov. 28-30. Internally, we think this one is a record breaker. Register and book the hotel while you can. The latter tends to sell out.
In recent weeks, we’ve been putting the final touches on the program. For instance, we’ve added …