![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
"What Does Google Owe Newspapers?"
Feb. 4th, 2009 02:20 pmNY Times piece that I just made a comment to:
*^*^*
Obvious first response -- Newspapers need Google far more than the other way around. If Google were to say, "Due to royalty structures, we're not going to include newspapers in search results," traffic to most newspaper sites would dry up overnight.
(Aside: This is also why the White House needs newspapers far more than the other way around. What happens to an Administration that is not covered? How the Bush Administration managed to make you folks insecure enough to "threaten" you with "lack of access" when it should have been the other way around is beyond the beyond. But I digress.)
The real problem with the online business model for newspapers, as Doc Searls has pointed out, is that generally the "news" is given away for free while the "olds" -- archives -- are charged for. This should be precisely the other way around. The customer base for news is huge, because it's time-bound. The customer base for archives is a niche.
It's as if gas stations charged $200 for air, while giving gasoline away for free.
*^*^*
Obvious first response -- Newspapers need Google far more than the other way around. If Google were to say, "Due to royalty structures, we're not going to include newspapers in search results," traffic to most newspaper sites would dry up overnight.
(Aside: This is also why the White House needs newspapers far more than the other way around. What happens to an Administration that is not covered? How the Bush Administration managed to make you folks insecure enough to "threaten" you with "lack of access" when it should have been the other way around is beyond the beyond. But I digress.)
The real problem with the online business model for newspapers, as Doc Searls has pointed out, is that generally the "news" is given away for free while the "olds" -- archives -- are charged for. This should be precisely the other way around. The customer base for news is huge, because it's time-bound. The customer base for archives is a niche.
It's as if gas stations charged $200 for air, while giving gasoline away for free.
