Google: Offline Media a 'Real Test'

NEW YORK Google continues to push into traditional media, but its various efforts aimed at bringing digital, auction-based buying and selling to TV and print are still several years from fully impacting the company’s revenue, according to comments made by one of its executives at the 35th annual UBS Global Media Conference here today.

Tim Armstrong, Google’s president, advertising and commerce, North America, said that offline media “has been a real test for us.” Armstrong pointed to the company’s work with satellite TV provider Echostar and various magazines and newspapers as signs of solid progress, but characterized its ultimate plan to offer media buyers a single “digital dashboard” for buying across media at a “very, very early stage.”