I linked last night to an update on what the Telegraph are terming a Crisis, personally I
couldn't care less what Murdoch did- there's an increasingly wide access to media from
grassroot up through el Pais, BBC, der Spiegel (even L'Osservatore Romano).
But it merits a read (here) : Rupert Murdoch to remove News Corp's content from Google 'in months' - Telegraph
also the site makes him look very (very) orange...
Somehow I wonder if Murdoch will be repeating the same mistake as those morons in the Irish Times and their little Pay Per View/subscription fiasco where they put the Irish Times behind a paywall and lost massive amounts of traffic and potentially millions in advertising. It also had the Irish Times technology section go from one of the most widely read and commented upon newspaper sections (amongst the Irish web audience) to a complete irrelevance and in the process consigning its mediocre technology journalists to technological oblivion. Murdoch, unlike the Irish Times and its management knows about digital rights management and but to date, some of his moves regarding the internet have not quite replicated the success in the print and broadcast media.
The reality is that Google search engine traffic accounts for a very significant amount of any website's traffic. In terms of market share in Ireland, it would account for over 80% of search engine traffic. But then many newspapers, including Murdoch's, don't have the full version of their newspaper online. This is the cannibalisation problem that most print publishers have to deal with - should they put all their print content online and hope that advertising will support it or should they put a subset of the print publication online and use it to drive readers to the print version? What should really disturb Murdoch is how the web treats sites that move behind paywalls. It ignores them and only a fraction of the core audience may subscribe. Unlike Murdoch's Sky operation, there is very little content in his publications that is not available elsewhere on the web for free. And it was free movies that enabled Murdoch's Sky to beat British Satellite Broadcasting. But the process nearly broke Sky as well.
Regards...jmcc
Murdoch does not understand the Internet. That is clear from the Myspace debacle. He's an old man trying to react to a new phenomena in the same way as terrestrial television reacted to him and Sky 15-20yrs ago. What goes around comes around. If he start charging for stuff people will go elsewhere. simple as. Whatever he takes off google will appear on youtube minutes later. The waters around you have grown Rupert
Perhaps this is Murdoch's motivation:
News Corporation
The $900M deal will expire in Q2 2010 and Google may not renew it. And yes, it does involve Myspace. It looks like Murdoch is trying to scare Google and hoping Microsoft will be able to step up with Bing. However the reality is that Google supplies the bulk of the search engine traffic in the North American/European markets.
Regards...jmcc
l do feel sorry for politicians who *must* endure the ranting of tycoons in policy areas. lt probably distracts them from their actual job which is as public servants : http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/orga...google-cameron
They are used to it Dot.
Murdoch has been effectively a king maker in the UK for years and all parties know this. However on the net, Murdoch's approach of becoming the gatekeeper (as he has for UK satellite TV) has failed. Now he is faced with the Google deal expiring next year and it is this that seems to have him worried. I think that Emily Bell is applying a far too narrow perspective to the issue and interpreting it in terms of UK politics when it really is a financial issue. The Gruaniad is quite good on media issues and I'd hate to think of the mess that the Irish Times would make of the issue though.
Regards...jmcc
This is some interesting analysis - probably better than the Guardian's or mainstream media's:
How Murdoch Can Really Hurt Google And Shift The Balance Of Power In Search
Regards...jmcc
Some discussion here on metering and envisaged payment structures, in vivid contrast to Murdochian threats against Google : http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/11/how...or-news-pitch/