Having finally settled with book publishers about scanning and indexing hundreds of thousands of books, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has set its sights on another print medium—magazines. Announced today via a blog post, Google is partnering with publishers like Hearst, Johnson Publishing, Emmis Publishing and New York Media to bring a bunch of magazine archives and current issues online.
It's the formal start of an initiative that has been in the works for a while, as there are currently more than a million articles available from titles like Men's Health, Atlanta Magazine, Ebony and New York Magazine, with new ones being added continuously. Users search through the articles—complete with vintage ad spreads—via Google Book Search, though magazine results will eventually show up in general searches on Google.com. Google is running sponsored links against the articles, and a spokesperson said that publishers get a cut of the revenue. With magazines folding, downsizing and taking financial and editorial hits left and right, any new revenue source seems like a good thing.
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