May 18, 2007 - 12:52PM
Fairfax Digital has strengthened its ties with Google, announcing an expanded relationship that will include a rollout of Google's AdWords text advertisements across the media company's network of websites.
The agreement will also pave the way for an increased amount of Fairfax's video content being made available through Google Video and a greater use of Google's mapping service throughout the Fairfax Digital network.
The partners also indicated that down the track, they would pursue additional commercial opportunities in Australia and New Zealand.
"We see this as a great partnership going forward and one that will allow us to do some interesting things, as yet unspecified," said Fairfax Digital CEO Jack Matthews.
"We believe there will be significant benefits to Fairfax and to ourselves from this partnership ... through increased monetisation ... and secondly, we believe our international reach is very important," Google's regional managing director Richard Kimber said.
The agreement will see revenue generated from the AdWords advertisements shared between the partners.
Fairfax Digital's existing graphical ads are served through DoubleClick, a company Google recently purchased for $3.75 billion.
"In today's complex world there is a reality you have to deal with ... and we see many more upsides to this relationship than threats," said Mr Matthews, responding to questions about dealing with a company that was once viewed as a competitor.
Fairfax Digital is the online arm of Fairfax Media, publisher of a raft of newspapers and websites including The Sydney Morning Herald and smh.com.au.
Fairfax Media last week completed a $7.5 billion merger with Rural Press that saw it significantly expand its presence in print, radio and magazines across a much wider geographical footprint.
The deal does not include Fairfax's stable of New Zealand websites, nor the Fairfax Business Media online network.
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