Google Turns Off Radio Ads

Google continues to pull back the reins on some of its product and service offerings, today announcing that they’re shutting down Google Audio Ads and Google Radio Automation.

In a post on the Google Traditional Media blog, Google’s Susan Wojcicki explains the service wasn’t as successful as they hoped:

In 2006, we launched Google Audio Ads and Google Radio Automation to create a new revenue stream for broadcast radio, produce more relevant advertising for listeners and streamline the buying and selling of radio ads. While we’ve devoted substantial resources to developing these products and learned a lot along the way, we haven’t had the impact we hoped for.

Advertisers can continue using Google Audio Ads until May 31st. The Google Radio Automation software will be sold. Google will instead focus on developing a service that delivers ads for online streaming audio.

Google says this decision could lead to the loss of up to 40 jobs.

It was just a few weeks ago that Google shut down its newspaper advertising program. And shortly before that, Google announced the closure of several other products/services, too.

There’s more discussion on Techmeme.