• by Shankar Gupta , June 8, 2006

MSN intends to start selling ads in all media, not just the Internet, Joanne Bradford, Microsoft's chief media revenue officer, said Wednesday at an American Business Media conference in New York.

Like arch-rival Google, MSN hopes to extend its paid search platform, adCenter, to a wide variety of outlets, Bradford said. "Our goal with adCenter is to advertise into any medium," she said, adding that Microsoft's purchase of in-game ad firm Massive Incorporated and its development of IPTV, a broadband television technology, will further that goal. "This marketplace is begging for some efficiency in the media buying process."

Microsoft, Bradford said, is looking to make advertising one of its major new revenue streams--possibly even larger than its core operating system business--and the market is ready for a competitor to Google's AdWords. "The advertising community wants an alternative to Google," she said, adding that "prices are being driven up way too fast."

Google started selling print ads earlier this year, but said last week that the initial results were disappointing.

Bradford Wednesday said Google's print magazine advertising initiative faltered because the search giant "didn't respect a lot of things about the medium."

Bradford also indicated that Microsoft was gearing up to compete with Google for employees. She said Microsoft hopes to lure staff from Google when the company's stock options begin vesting next year.