I’m no big fan of Rupert Murdoch, but I think he’s right about Google and newspapers. Something has to be done about the fact that search engines get a completely free ride sourcing millions of articles on the Web…and then taking most of the advertising revenue.

Murdoch called Google’s actions “theft” at a Washington forum on the future of newspapers. That’s true, although it’s akin to leaving your trunk open and then bitching when your laptop is taken.

The question is how to fix the problem.

Murdoch’s own Wall Street Journal may have part of the solution, although it predated Murdoch’s acquisition of the newspaper.  The Journal is the only mass market newspaper I know of that gets away with charging for its product on the Web. If you want to read the full text of the newspaper online, you need to either have a subscription or pay $50 a year.

You can get away with that if you have a product so valuable people are willing to pay for it. But not if your competitors are willing to provide the same news when you start charging for it.

So one piece of the solution will undoubtedly be a consortium of publications willing to band together to charge — say, accessing all the articles from the L.A. Times, New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle for a set monthly fee.  That, and pressuring Google to give up a small piece of the billions of dollars it makes off newspapers’ backs.

Posted under Michael's Blog