Google announced this week that they will be terminating their fledgling print ad initiative and will stop accepting print ads at the end of February.

Spencer Spinnell, Director of Google Print Ads, explained the move in a post on Google’s official blog, “While we hoped that Print Ads would create a new revenue stream for newspapers and produce more relevant advertising for consumers, the product has not created the impact that we — or our partners — wanted.  As a result, we will stop offering Print Ads on February 28.“

For advertisers who have already scheduled print ad campaigns, Google will continue placing those ads until March 31.

Begun in 2006 with only 50 participating newspapers, Google’s Print Ads program has grown to include a network of over 800 newspapers. In spite of this growth, the Print Ads initiative never really caught on with Internet users.

In his blog post, Spinnnell went on to say, “Some advertisers have seen good results and our partners have dedicated time and resources to help get it off the ground. But as we grow, it is important that we focus on products that can benefit the most people and solve the most important problems. By moving resources away from projects that aren’t having the impact we want, we can refocus our efforts on those that will delight millions of users.“

Although Spinnell seems to selflessly have users’ best interests in mind, it is more than safe to say that the real reason Google is doing away Print Ads is because it has never gave them much in the way of ROI.