National advertisers have repeatedly told this industry that they wish for some easy way to advertise in the medium. One that doesn’t require navigating the disparate staffs and processes they find at the nation’s hundreds of newspapers.

And that’s why Google will be successful if it sticks to its newest plan to sell ads directly within the pages of newspapers.

Google’s program could be a new source of revenue for newspapers. Or, it could further erode newspapers’ local advantage, as the online AdSense program has done.

We’re all so proud of the local relationship our newspapers have with advertisers, and we point to that as our best (if not only) competitive advantage when competing with the likes of AutoTrader for ad sales. But if we outsource this relationship, then the newspaper loses its last competitive advantage.

Continuing down this path means that eventually all local and national advertisers will use Google (or some other proxy) to place ads. And because Google controls the relationship, it can decide how large of a cut it takes from each sale.

Newspapers must acknowledge the brutal fact that using proxies to sell ads means our local relationship with advertisers is lost. And that’s OK, if we’re prepared.

Newspapers must be careful as they develop this program to ensure that Google is treated as a new employee, not as a partner. If Google is simply another ad rep, then the newspaper still decides how much of a commission each ad is worth, same as it does for any employee.

This is vital as this “open source” advertising sales model progresses. Newspapers must ensure that other proxies can easily begin competing for your ad sales. Perhaps Microsoft will start its own ad network. Perhaps a group of hotshot sales reps will team up to sell across multiple newspapers.

Bottomline is be ready for what happens when more advertisers say they’re on your site or in your newspaper, but no one in your building sold the ad.

Tomorrow’s entry: Or, do Google one better.