Rupert Murdoch attacks Google
April 5, 2009 · Filed Under Essays and Commentary, forbes, Google, media outlets, news corp, newspapers, page views, rupert murdoch, traffic
Rupert Murdoch accused the search giant of poaching content it doesn’t own and urging media outlets to fight back. “Should we be allowing Google to steal all our copyrights?” asked the News Corp. chief.
Forbes.com says this could be the call to arms that newsrooms need.
Ian Betteridge says traffic is a double-edged sword.
You need readers to make money from content, but even online every reader has an incremental cost. If companies aren’t making enough money from the additional readers they get from Google, then Google represents a cost to newspapers, rather than additional revenue. In other words, if the ad revenue isn’t there, every page view costs money. So why should newspapers care about the loss of page views from blocking Google?
(via @matthewi)
