Google is diving in full: it is expanding its newspaper print-ad sales test into a larger program, and has opened the gates to any Google advertiser and increased the number of participating papers to cover most of the country’s most populous areas, reports AdAge. The test was launched in November last year with about 50 newspapers and 100 selected advertiser…this new phase has 225 newspapers throughout the country.

NYT: Newspaper publishers participating in the program include Hearst Newspapers, Gannett, The New York Times Company, Scripps and the Seattle Times Company. Advertisers can search for newspapers through a number of criteria, including their circulation and geographic region, then can make an offer for a certain size ad, and then wait to see whether the ad is approved or the publication responds with a counteroffer. Spencer Spinnell, head of sales strategy for Google Print Ads said that newspapers’ acceptance rate of advertisements has been “north of 50 percent.” Majority of revenues is kept by the newspaper.

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