Google to quit selling newspaper ad space

Google Inc. is giving up on selling print ads for the ailing newspaper industry, ending a 2-year-old attempt to extend its dominance of Internet marketing into another medium. The retrenchment announced Tuesday is part of a cost-cutting campaign aimed at boosting Google's profits as the deepening recession eats away at Google's bread-and-butter business of selling ads on its own website and thousands of other Internet destinations. Under the program begun in late 2006, potential advertisers were allowed to bid online to fill unsold space in the participating newspapers, leaving it up to publishers whether to accept the offers. But Mountain View, Calif.-based Google concluded that its online expertise wasn't paying off in print, prompting management to pull the plug on its newspaper program effective Feb. 28. The decision affects about 800 U.S. newspapers.

Warner Bros. Entertainment movie studio said Tuesday it is eliminating nearly 800 jobs, or 10 percent of its global workforce, and is examining further cost reductions. The cuts come after the studio posted a 9 percent drop in third-quarter revenue to $2.88 billion, despite the success of the summer blockbuster "The Dark Knight." Earlier this month, parent Time Warner Inc. said it will post a loss for the full year because of a $25 billion write-down of its assets in cable, magazines and Internet, caused in part by the advertising slowdown. Most of the jobs will come out of the studio's headquarters in Burbank, Calif., through a mix of layoffs, elimination of open positions and outsourcing, said spokesman Scott Rowe.

Canada's central bank cut its trendsetting interest rate by one-half point to 1 percent on Tuesday, the lowest in history. The Bank of Canada declared the country is in recession. It said much of the world is in recession and that stabilizing global financial markets is necessary for recovery. "The outlook for the global economy has deteriorated since the bank's December interest rate announcement, with the intensifying financial crisis spilling over into real economic activity," the bank said in a statement. The bank warned that the Canadian economy will contract by 1.2 percent this year.