Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Newspapers - Get a Life
Newspapers, Magazines, and book publishers have a new target for their slumping sales: Google.
The World Association of Newspapers wants Google and other online news aggregation companies to pay compensation for using their stories, claiming that their business is built on 'kleptomania'. Gavin O'Reilly, their official spokesman, states that the content Google News provides on their page is often enough for the casual reader, and by posting their content, they are reducing the revenue they can generate from their own sites as users will not click through to them.
Say what? Let's take a look at the Google News page. These descriptions aren't even full paragraphs, some of them aren't even full sentences. They are teasers in every sense of the word. And a great majority of the newspapers on this page are newspapers I would never even think of reading in the first place, because they aren't local. It isn't like I can go to the local bookstore here and pick up a copy of the Houston Chronicle or the Detroit Free Press. Google News and other aggregators are free advertising for the paper and the content they hold. As advertising, the Newspapers should pay Google to be included. And rather than go down that road, why not just leave the collaboration free to both parties involved?
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