Google CEO lends a boot in kicking newspapers
Posted by Bill Gaffney | July 23rd, 2008
Image via WikipediaGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt has lent a boot in the daily kicking of the down-but-not-out newspaper industry. Schmidt sees the future as “bleak” for the newspaper industry, adding that the loss of investigative reporting in which newspapers excel is a “tragedy” as it “is so important for democracy.”
The tragedy is that his positive comments about the value of newspapers has been lost as bloggers and traditional media fall over themselves to report his dark forecast for the medium. The tragedy is that after stating that there is a “huge moral imperative” to help newspapers, they’ve prioritized it lower than brokering a deal with Lion’s Gate to monetize movie clips. The tragedy is that these appear to be hollow words from a company that professes to “do no evil.”
The truth is that there is no moral requirement for Google to help newspapers better monetize their online advertising, nor abandon their recent policy of linking to their own news articles from The Associated Press. There is no moral imperative for any business to step up to aid the industry, though I fear the future of news may be rife with “talking heads” espousing opinions as fact.
This is another wake up call for newspapers, television and radio to embrace this distribution channel with the same commitment as their primary. Although Google’s mantra is to “do no evil,” that doesn’t translate to charity.
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[...] up on the recent comments Google CEO Eric Schmidt had concerning newspapers and their future, Advertising Age has posted video of him at their Ad Age [...]