Blog
04.10
Meet Google: Newspaper’s New BFF?
If you believe the uber search engine’s CEO Eric E. Schmidt quote in the New York Times recently, all those reporters kicked to the curb by their publishers owe Google a big fat apology.
Mr. Schmidt “encouraged” publishers [as he counted his cash malevolently – not an eyewitness account] in his closing keynote address at the Newspaper Association of America, “to create more personalized news products that could be delivered effectively on the Web, cellphones and other devices.
“We think we can build a business — again, with you guys — with significant advertising resources, where the advertising is targeted to the content,” he said.
Yeah. About that? People used to actually read the paper. Now, thanks largely to that ingenuity thingy, people use the paper to decorate bird cages, clean windows and as the occasional blanket as seen on park benches.
The layout of the paper was not created for larger font and tricked-up headlines; it was made for spacious advertising. The moment Google made news surfing a sport, and the purchasing of pop-up blockers a tax deduction, the newspaper industry’s days were numbered.
On behalf of all of us who work with all of them daily, I hope Schmidt can own up to that promise.
There are many brilliant reporters and writers who are being given a package, a check and a change of address monthly. It doesn’t help us, and it certainly isn’t helping them. If there is a way to bring the print product into the 21st century, I hope it happens soon.
Otherwise, I need to figure out whom to pitch at AT&T, Sprint and Verizon on this great story about one of these guys.
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