I think I'm supposed to be overjoyed at this news:
News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch just may have stumbled onto a way to save the newspaper business.
According to the Wall Street Journal (which like this blog is published by News Corp.), Murdoch has had talked with Microsoft (MSFT) about a deal in which News Corp. would remove its newspaper content from Google’s (GOOG) search engine, while continuing to include it in Microsoft’s Bing search engine. The story is attributed to “people familiar with the matter.”
The story said the talks are in a very early stage, and might not result in a deal; a key issue is the price Microsoft would pay News Corp. to feature its content, which includes not just Barron’s and the Journal, but also the New York Post, the Sun, the Times of London, the Australian and various other publications. Unclear is whether the deal might also include MySpace and Fox television properties.
This is a little bit like Dorothy and Toto going through 90 minutes of high drama in the "Wizard of Oz." then finding out she only had to click her heels three times to get back to Kansas. After all the non-stop debate over how advertising might or might not support news over the Internet, not to mention and paywalls, non-profit models, etc., the solution all along was an old-fashioned Macy's-v.-Gimbels kind of old-fashioned business war, with Google in the role of Macy's and Microsoft as Gimbels? Talk about your Christmastime miracle on 34th Street!
In the best-case scenario, a bidding war between Microsoft and Google and maybe other rivals over online newspaper content -- if extended beyond Murdoch's News Corp. to other struggling media outlets -- could keep newsrooms alive for several years and get them over the hump of the financial crisis...
For now, that is. The truth is, these dollars from heaven for online news are just a Band-Aid, albeit a desperately needed one. This exciting development will only save the business, longterm, if the news companies spend those dollars wisely, by investing in an entirely new eco-system of news, not only more oriented towards the Web as the prime means of delivery but also radicaly different in outlook, built around a community-oriented running conversation and not the old, one-way print-oriented, look-down-on-the-audience dictation that has alienated some former readers and simply bored others.
And to be blunt, the chances are that newspapers would not radically transform the way they do business. Just look at the recent changes at the Washington Post, where the old-fashioned way of doing things is still in charge, even with everything that's happened in the news business over the last decade and all the promises that radical change is around the corner. Because this Microsoft-Google money, if it indeed exists, can and most likely will vanish just as quickly as it appeared. And then what? Newspapers that wallow in their old ways will now have squandered our last chance to save ourselves.
Four years ago, I wrote this about newspapers:
If we don't change, we will die - and it will be our fault.
Nothing has changed since then. And if the Microsoft-News Corp. deal is simply the newspaper version of "cash for clunkers," it will be more true than ever.
Comment removed.
First, out of curiosity, since you're an editor, doesn't Phillynews have any reporters to send to the scene of the off duty officer shooting? The article online quotes Fox 29 and 6AB's reports. BTW, all this talk of dying newspapers isn't exactly falling on sympathetic ears. I'm not one of these clowns dreaming of seeing you starving, but on the list of things I don't care about, I didn't bother writing down the death of newspapers.— SteveMG- Comment removed.
Strange how you never quiet get the message Will . 'Newspapers' and I use the term lightly are to biased . Your blog is a perferct example of the newspaper its a constant mantra for the left . The fact is the MSM are way out on the left while the people that buy them are firmly in the centre . A perfect example is you , no negative stories ever involve the circus we now have as government , instead you post endlessly about Reagan ( He's dead BTW ) or Palin , ( she is not in government Will in case you didnt notice ) , we have a health care bill thats a joke , a stimulus bill thats a fraud , renamed terrorist attacks and the liberal press ignore the lot— PAEnglish- "First, out of curiosity, since you're an editor, doesn't Phillynews have any reporters to send to the scene of the off duty officer shooting?" I can't speak for the Inquirer; the Daily News doesn't publish on Sunday so we don't have reporters working on Saturday, period. We did do an article today on the incident but the reporter was simultaneously writing two other stories, one of which was a roundup of weekend crimes of which several could have been standalone stories, such as the suspicious death of an infant. That's not a very satisfying answer -- for any of us -- but that's the answer.— will
- Comment removed.
- Testing 123— WriteWinger
- ****BREAKING NEWS****Sarah Palin's poll numbers are strengthening. And President Obama's are sliding. Guess what? They're about to meet in the 40s. Depending, of course, on which recent set of numbers you peruse and how the questions are phrased, 307 days into his allotted 1,461, the 44th president's approval rating among Americans has slid to 49% or 48%, showing no popularity bounce from his many happy trips, foreign and domestic. Riding the wave of immense publicity and symbiotic media interest over her new book, "Going Rogue," and the accompanying promotional tour, Palin's favorable ratings are now at 43%, according to ABC. That's up from 40% in July. One poll even gives her a 47% favorable. Yep, that Obumma, the gift that keeps on giving! Say it loud, say it proud: President Sarah Heath Palin !!— WriteWinger
WriteWinger, Sara doesn't have a job approval rating. She quit her job, remember?- Comment removed.
- PAEnglish for President!!— pj katauskas
- I read the WSJ. The DN is no WSJ. (Apologies to Lloyd Bensten.)— pj katauskas
- Gibba -- good point. Hypocrisy certainly cuts both ways on that issue. Dems can certainly not complain about attempts to block bills/issues from coming to a vote, since they majored in it during the Bush administration. And republicans can hardly complain ever again about a cloture vote. But for some reason, time seems to obscure all previous bad acts.— IggleFan68
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Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
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