Google Gives News Corp. an F in Financial Reasoning
September 19, 2009
I have been busy making videos. As a result, I have been taking direction from a film maker and hassling the goslings for a punchy script. In a few weeks, the videos will be available without charge, and you will see me, the goslings, and a surprise nerd floundering as we try to make complicated stuff simple.
As a consequence, I have fallen behind in my reading about the dust up between Google and the publishing industry. I did read with considerable interest a write up in Maximum PC. I used to buy the magazine, but my recollection is that the last issue cost $6, maybe $7. When I worked at Ziff, I used to get PC magazines free. Well, those days are gone, so the publishers have to find new ways to earn money to pay for their Yacht Club memberships. The New York City outpost is across from the Royalton Hotel in what has become an upscale street in the last decade.
Image source: http://riverdaughter.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/report-card-f-011409l.jpg
“Google CEO Spurns Murdoch’s Paid Content Plan” grabbed my attention. I like the word “spurn”, which means to me to reject with disdain; scorn; to treat with contempt; despise; and to kick or trample with the foot. I used the word with the “foot” sense in Ms. Sperling’s English class and earned her disdain. (She did not know the “trample with the foot” meaning, and I did. Snort.) Maximum PC’s story wrote:
He believes that it is highly unlikely that internet users will be willing to pay for accessing general news items on the internet given the nimiety of free news sources on the internet. “In general these models have not worked for general public consumption because there are enough free sources that the marginal value of paying is not justified based on the incremental value of quantity. So my guess is for niche and specialist markets … it will be possible to do it but I think it is unlikely that you will be able to do it for all news,”
If true, Google seems to perceive that News Corp.’s financial wizards have earned an F in financial analysis from Google’s Singularity University. Here in Harrod’s Creek, my neighbor would just say, “Ain’t got no clue.” I like the “spurn” word, however. Both Google and my neighbor would agree on one point, I believe. An F in financial analysis. Does News Corp. care? Does Google care? Nope, two ships passing in the night. One is the Titanic. One is a nuclear powered destroyer. Which is which?
Stephen Arnold, September 19, 2009
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
