With internet advertising increasing rapidly, the need for a big player to step up to the plate and provide a Big Ad Lite service has become obvious, especially to users of weblog technology. Now Google is moving into this marketplace and, as with Adsense, it’s likely to set the standard.

The Wall Street Journal reports :

The biggest Internet companies, including Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., are focusing attention and money on the emerging business, hoping to be first with the kind of large-scale, dynamic market for the ad industry that the Nasdaq market brought to stocks. [...]

Today, online publications and Internet companies have space for display ads built into their Web sites. Typically, that space gets filled with ads either the old-fashioned way — through a salesperson — or by a mix of computers and people called an ad network that automatically sells ads for the spot. But a significant portion of the available ad space — called “inventory” — remains unsold, or is sold for next to nothing. Enter the exchanges, which use automated systems to match buyers with sellers of unsold space.

This is good news for a significant swathe of small online businesses stuck between the vast mass of “blogs” beneath and the bigco websites above.

If Google can come up with an automatic solution as simple and seller-friendly as Text Link Ads, with geo-location and other factors built in, it will take mass advertising on the net to a new level. It will also improve the bottom lines of small-business digital networks beyond recognition.

Google’s buy-out of DoubleClick provides the platform. This could be the most exciting development for online business in years, taking advertising from professional operators to ordinary publishers on the shop floor.

Pramit Singh, an “information professional working in New Delhi”, has written an interesting piece on blog networks over at MediaVidea.

Trawling through various opinions and scenarios, the main emphasis of the post is on the downside risks and problem areas of digital networks. Many of these points have been aired on other sites, not least on this one.

Here’s the take on Syntagma : “In fact, one blog network, Syntagma Media, which had more than 50 blogs, cut down on all redundant blogs and ended up with just 3 sites, which are now being run along the Engadget model – as magazines.”

That’s not quite accurate since we still have 55 sites. We’ve simply packaged them around three (soon four) portals under a concept we call “network magazines”. It does worry me that some intelligent and otherwise informed individuals can still get this wrong. But then maybe that’s a positive outcome. If visitors now see our inventory as three magazines, rather than a collection of “blogs”, that indicates that the system is working.

Even b5media gets a bit of excessive pidgeon-holing : “B5media specializes in Celeb blogs.” Whatever happened to the other 13 channels?

The fact is, the average surfer is not going to grasp your wonderful arrangements and system concepts while flicking through your inventory. When people who know the ground get it wrong, though, some head-scratching is clearly in order.

It is good to be reminded of these points from time to time, obvious though they are. One thing I’ve learned since coming into this business is that quality of traffic is preferable to tidal waves of Digg- or Slashdot-type invasions. Some of our low trafficked sites make more money than our highly visited ones. The secret of success is not to close down the bigger sites, but to divert specific segments of the tidal traffic flows onto the higher-paying inventory — and that’s the basis of our network magazine theory. It does work too.

There’s one simple principle that’s always drummed into new entrepreneurs : it’s no good making wonderful products if you can’t sell them. This is why our Retailz USA portal will be a step change from what we’ve done before, and will introduce a wholly new concept of managing, producing and presenting content online. What we are dreaming up is nothing less than a revolution in the portalization of commercial content.

Network magazines Mark II will be far in advance of the original concept of blog networks. In fact, you’ll hardly recognize it.

All Syntagma Digital sites, and those of Dial Publishing, will be moving to new enterprise-level servers over coming weeks.

This should help us provide an even better service for our advertisers and customers while allowing us to develp more sophisticated features on the network.

It’s a big operation, so there may be some minor disruptions along the way. We are assured these will be kept to a minimum.

I’ve long been an advocate of the convergence of print and pixel formats. Each has something to learn from the other, and, despite the insistent claims, the online world will not replace print in a clean sweep any time soon.

Despite the obvious limitations of long text pieces online, there’s yet another outbreak of print-death fever going around. Tim O’Reilly has heard whispers that the San Francisco Chronicle is in “serious trouble” and is laying off journalists and staff. Dave Winer wades in with a thoughtful contribution, while Robert Scoble trumpets, “Newpapers are dead”.

The problem with that kind of headline is that this is a complex situation with many variations and possible outcomes. Certainty is not an option here.

Newspapers have been in trouble as long as they have existed. I can name a dozen national titles that went out of business in Britain in the 20th century. It happens — all the time. One failure doesn’t necessarily signal the end of an industry.

Most UK national newspapers now put their whole output openly on websites. They break news online and follow up in later print issues with in-depth analyses and commentary. They also give away DVDs and lottery cards with the print version and have a sizeable magazine-type feature-set aimed at specific demographics. Not many of their customers want to turn their computers on to access all of that when they can buy it in a convenient print bundle for around a dollar while they’re on the move.

As newspapers become more like daily magazines, with retrospective analysis of news already broken on TV and online, urban populations are still buying print products in large quantities. The evening papers, for example, are bought by returning commuters to make their homeward journey a little more bearable and to catch up on the stories of the day. Local papers are increasingly the glue that binds the inhabitants of towns and villages together.

What is actually happening is a convergence, not a replacement. Increasingly print publishers are becoming digital publishers, while maintaining their print operations. Imagine the major titles — the FT, WSJ, NYT, or Times (London) — without their immensely prestigious paper versions. They would lose considerable traction in the marketplace without them.

We forget at our peril that most people like the reassuring feel of a “real world” product in their hands. They go online for certain types of information, but relax with a book or magazine.

Breaking news is covered better on 24-hour news channels than on websites or blogs. Immediacy is the USP here. Fiction is a pain on-screen. Long, complex, nonfiction is easier to handle in book form, and some subjects are presented far better in print than they are on the internet.

What we’re seeing is a weeding out process that will result in rapidly-changing information migrating online — as it already has — while considered analysis will appear in hybrid formats for different audiences. More reflective, longer-term material and fiction will still remain predominantly the province of print formats and subsequent dramatizations.

It’s often forgotten that new technology has transformed the print world too. On-demand book printing, from disc in tiny batches, is already changing the face of book production and will continue to do so.

Can anyone tell me why a wealthy society shouldn’t support many communications formats to their mutual advantage?

Syntagma Digital is today embarking on the development of two new webtitles for our Moneyizor network magazine, due next month.

They are Entrepreneur Latest and Innovation Latest, embracing the two most essential features of the modern, globalized economy.

Stay close for further information.

Syntagma Digital is now offering sponsored leaderboards at the top of our sites.

This facility is available on any of our webtitles across the network. These are very affordable placements for the right kind of company and product.

If you don’t have a leaderboard already designed (760 x 90), we’ll do it for you.

Just contact : ads(at)SyntagmaMedia(dot)com. We will take it from there.

The first of our much-trailed retail portals is set for lift off around May/June, following the launch of our newest network magazine, Moneyizor in April.

The first of the two currently-planned shopping-based extravaganzas is titled, RetailzUSA, and, as the name implies, is targeted firmly on the world’s biggest retail market.

We have a raft of webtitles ready for the off and are adding more as we go. We shall also be inviting outside sites to join at some stage.

The U.S. version will be followed by a UK portal — ShopShapeUK, probably towards autumn.

In the course of opening up our four network magazines to external sites/blogs, we are going to need to set up a dedicated ad server capable of delivering Flash ads (rich media) to participating sites, plus good tracking and editing facilities for advertisers.

I’ve been chatting with other network owners on another site about the possibility of a joint effort, since we probably wouldn’t need the whole capacity of even a single server. Some interesting ideas are emerging.

However, we want to push ahead with facilities of our own in case agreement can’t be reached. Can any of our readers recommend a reliable server company that offers this service together with decent tech support?

We are now actively working on the next planned development of our network magazine concept. This involves opening them up to suitable sites/blogs outside the Syntagma Digital inventory.

The move will allow external sites inclusion in our rolling feeds, plus graphical representation on the portals and participation in the Editor’s Pick of the Posts. In addition, they will become recipients of any magazine-wide advertising deals we negotiate going forward. Involvement will not change the ownership, hosting arrangements, or running of outside sites in any way.

We are currently looking at the technical and monetary aspects of this proposal and will reach some decisions over the coming month. Inclusion will be open to all four of our network magazines :

Allusionz – Arts and Philosophies
LifeTimes – Lifestyles and Celebrities
21st-century Phi – Sciences and Future Technologies
(Coming Soon) Moneyizor — Money Matters and Small Business.

In the meantime, site/blog owners who may be interested in this proposition can email me to register an interest and be involved in the early stages of the arrangement. The email address is in the footer.

Update : In an interview with 901am, the conversation continued :

How will you split the revenue with participating sites?
We’re currently looking at a 70/30 split in favor of the client for all new magazine-wide advertising. That beats what’s on offer elsewhere, at least to my knowledge. It also has added advantages in terms of traffic.

What’s your goal with adding more sites to the various network magazines? Are there any milestones you want to reach, and where will it lead eventually?
The goal is to use the increased page views from the extra sites to secure better advertising for everyone aggregated in the magazine, including our own authors. It makes sense to maximize the use of the content platforms we’re creating in a way that benefits everyone involved. As for milestones, the system is totally expansible with no limits that I can see.

External sites and blogs will get exposure on our content platforms, traffic back, and 70% of new advertising revenue generated on contributing sites. Owners pay nothing, and virtually do nothing for all that. It’s got to be one of the best deals around.