Two major Australian newspapers have threatened to pull their advertisements on Google as a form of protest against the recently launched Google Maps Real Estate service, an aggregator of real estate listings found on other sites, The Inquisitr reported.

Australia's News Ltd. and the Fairfax group, which own prominent real estate sites, are on the defense against the new site, which they see as a competitor to their respective Realestate.com.au and Domain.

In a statement issued by Fairfax addressing the threat to pull ads, the group stated: "we are obviously not keen to support a would-be competitor with our revenue."

Visitors to Google Maps Real Estate can conduct searches using a variety of options, including neighborhood, size of the property and the price range. While real estate agencies can directly list their properties on the sites, independent sellers must have information on their home aggregated from another site in order for it to appear on Google's Web site.

An article appearing the Sydney Morning Herald pointed out that Realestate.com.au and Domain both get one third of their traffic from Google, which may give pause to protest plans.

Google executives expect video sharing site YouTube, owned by the search giant, to turn a profit in not too long, the company's chief financial officer told analysts in a conference call, Dow Jones reported Friday.

"We're really pleased both in terms of its revenue growth, which is really material to YouTube and, in the not long, too long distance future, we actually see a very profitable and good business for us," said Patrick Pichette, according to a Dow Jones article, posted by The Australian.

He said YouTube has a "very credible business model," in response to statements by analysts that questioned whether the cost of streaming millions of videos supported by minimal advertising is sustainable.

In an earnings call Thursday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the video sharing site is "now on a trajectory that we're very pleased with," according to Reuters.

Jonathan Rosenberg, head of product management and marketing, said on Thursday that the number of people viewing ad-supported videos more than tripled in the past year, enabling the site to monetize "billions of views of partner videos every month."

Gannett Co. is not likely to make any financial improvements in the next quarter, according to J.P. Morgan analysts Alexia Quadrani and Monica DiCenso, reported Editor & Publisher reported Thursday.

Quadrani and DiCenso predict another "weak quarter" for Gannett, which is set to release its financial statistics July 15. J.P. Morgan expects the publishing firm's advertising revenue to have fallen by 32 percent through the second economic quarter, with "severe revenue declines," anticipated for its flagship, national paper USA Today.

"Advertisers and local media operators that we spoke with remain very cautious on the outlook for local ad spending, in spite of easing comps, leading us to believe that we may not have reached a bottom yet in the market," Quadrani and DiCenso wrote, according to E&P. "We believe the anticipated weakness at Gannett will set the tone for another depressing reporting season in the newspaper universe."

The predicted loss comes despite extensive cost cutting measures, including the recent announcement of a planned 1,400 job cuts. However, the analysts said the speed of the advertising declines could not be offset by the moves as the consolidated EBITDA is forecast to decline to US$247.5 million in the second quarter, a margin of 17 percent.

Salon Media Group will pay bloggers for their Open Salon site with money generated from Google AdSense ads BizJournals.com reported.

From now on, bloggers can count on revenue from as many as three ads appearing on their page. Advertisements for Salon Media will also appear on bloggers' pages.

In a press release from the company Open Salon's director Kerry Lauerman said the decision reflects the company's attitude towards its members saying, "Our philosophy from the get-go here has always been that we're publishing partners with our members...we've always understood that if we profit, they need to profit, as well."