Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Google's Schmidt on Paid for Internet News


Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, spoke today at a convention of leading newspaper bosses (sounds like an AA get together) and stated that '... many publishers were increasingly thinking about charging for their content, and he said he expected the newspaper industry to eventually resemble television, where some content was free, some was purchased by subscription and some was paid for every time it was viewed. But he said he expected that advertising would remain the leading revenue model in online media.'

I think he's missing a trick. And its called the blogging universe. TV has no competition from blogs - just Youtube amateurs as yet. But citizen journalism via blogs is a powerful global force which probably means that simple, commoditized news will be hard to charge for online. Hi value added info yes, straight news no. Luckily for Google its advertising that's gonna keep news groups alive on the Web. Tricking themselves that they can get away with charging subscriptions online is a little head up their...

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