Google ad revenue exceeds all U.S. print ad revenue combined

Mashable’s Seth Fiegerman (@sfiegerman) reports that Google’s ad revenue is now greater than all U.S. print ad revenue combined.

During the first six months of 2012, Google generated more money in advertising revenue than all U.S. print publications combined, as illustrated in the chart [below] from Statistica. Google brought in $10.9 billion in ad revenue in this time period, while U.S. newspapers and magazines brought in $10.5 billion.

Admittedly, we’re not comparing apples to apples. Google’s ad revenue is world-wide while the print ad revenue is only from the United States. Nonetheless the steep decline of print ad revenue as compared to Google’s rising ad revenue is staggering.

What’s it mean for law firms? At least a couple things. One, evaluate whether advertising in print publication is worth your while. Most advertisers clearly are.

Second with these type of ad revenues, there’s a legitimate question whether the print publications in which you may be advertising are going to be around that much longer.