• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, November 6, 2006

Google is readying an effort to sell ads in 50 major newspapers, including papers published by Gannett, the Tribune Company, The New York Times Company, the Washington Post Company, and Hearst. Google reportedly will begin testing the system with 100 advertisers later this month.

Google will begin taking a cut of the revenue next year, after the initial test phase; the search company usually garners about 20% of the ad revenue, according to The New York Times. Among the marketers testing the program is Denver-based online retailer eBags.com.

The program will harness Google's online platform, which the company uses to sell paid search ads. The initiative marks Google's latest attempt to sell ads in traditional media. Earlier this year, Google started selling ads in about two dozen magazines, including ELLEgirl, Motor Trend, and PC World.

That venture, however, didn't gain as much traction as Google had anticipated. In a June conference call with investors and the media, Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's senior vice president for product management, said the print ad sales program "probably hasn't taken off as fast as we would like."

Despite the slow start, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said during the same conference call that Google intended to continue to attempt to sell ads in traditional media, including television.