If ever there was an example of coopetition, this is it. Google will be placing ads in newspapers, the very same newspapers who are struggling to adapt to falling revenue, mostly from competition with Google. Sheesh. Now here is an interesting quote:
“Print adds value the Internet doesn’t have,” he said. Mr. Phillips, the former publisher of Spy Magazine, was hired by Google earlier this year. “It is a different browse-able reading medium.”
It's actually bigger than that. Online ads, at least most of them so far, are transactional. You are looking for a specific something to buy, you see the ad, you buy. But what online does not do, at least now, is help build a brand or brand connection -- this is something print still does quite well.