I worked for the Daily Hampshire Gazette from 1986 through 1995, and one of the suggestions I often used to make was that we sell the unsold space for a discount after deadline. Don Nunes, the ad director, called them “remnant ads,” where house ads would usually run. We did offer these with some success back then, it made sense since half price is better than nothing.
In an unusual twist, Crains Chicago Business reports that Google is taking the same tack, running print versions of its text ads in the Chicago Sun Times. “We were eager to help them shut us down,” jokes Sun-Times Publisher John Cruickshank. “They’re buying ads. We like that.”
The benefits for the Sun-Times are obvious: making money on previously unsold ad space, even if that money comes from the biggest player in a business that’s undercutting old-line newspapers.
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