SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Google said Thursday it is getting out of the broadcast radio advertising business in a move that could result in the Internet powerhouse shedding about 40 workers. The announcement comes as Google aband ons a two-year-old program intended to put the California firm’s online expertise to work auctioning off space on newspaper pages to bargain-seeking advertisers. Google launched services in 2006 to target broadcast radio advertising and automate programming. “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,” Google vice president of product management Susan Wojcicki wrote in an online post. “So, we have decided to exit the broadcast radio business and focus our efforts in online streaming audio.”Google plans to sell its Radio Automation business, and terminate its Adsense for Audio and Audio Ads services on May 31. “We have always accepted that if you take risks not all of them will pay off,” Wojcicki wrote. “Deciding to close products is never easy.”Google is exploring the potential of providing advertising for Internet radio and other online audio offerings.
The firm said it will continue to invest in its growing television advertising business. “At Google we’ve never shied away from high-risk, high-reward projects,” Wojcicki wrote.”We believe that making big bets is not only in the best interests of our users and partners, but also important for our long term success.”Yahoo! News – 40 job cuts as Google exits broadcast radio ad business by AFP: Yahoo! Tech.
