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WORDS FLY AS THE BATTLE HEATS
UP
IN THE FEUD BETWEEN GOOGLE AND
NEWSPAPERS
Les Hinton, Chief Executive of Dow Jones let
loose an angry barrage while addressing the annual Entertainment and Media
Outlook conference sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers. He chastised
Google, labeling it a “digital vampire sucking the blood “of newspapers.
Interestingly he laid some of the blame on newspapers too by adding the industry
“gave Google’s fangs a great place to bite.”
Hinton, who also doubles as the Publisher of the
Wall Street Journal, strongly opposes the practice of giving away news
content free, as the majority of his print competitors are currently doing in
their digital editions. The Journal has been a relatively successful
pioneer in charging for content, while most print publishers just sit by and
complain that Google is making money from content that they
produce.
Frequently chiding fellow publishers about their
reluctance to charge for content, Hinton told the audience that his company was
designing a program to help newspapers develop a profitable approach to digital
exposure.
At about the same time, Steve Balmer, CEO at
Microsoft, predicted that “All content consumed will be digital, (but) we
can debate if that may be in one, two, five or ten years.” He chastised print
publishers for not at least beginning to generate revenue from their online
content.
Speaking at the Cannes Lions International
Advertising Festival, Balmer stated, “Google’s search site makes money.”
Then he asked, “Past Google, is there a publisher with an ad-funded or
fee-based model that has made lots of money? No!”
Time is fleeting, and unfortunately publishers still
wrangle over how to cope with the inevitable. I’m not sure Balmer is completely
right. There probably still will remain a handful of print editions for lovers
of newsprint like me. But any successful publisher producing both will have to
find a profitable balance between on and offline editions. It certainly can be
done.
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