MediaPost Publications Rupert Threatens To Take His Content And Go Home 11/09/2009

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Rupert Threatens To Take His Content And Go Home

Mumbrella et al., Monday, November 9, 2009, 1:58 PM

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TAGS: Death of Print, Newspapers, Free, Online Publishing

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Really, Rupert? Really? As part of his broader paid content strategy, News Corp.'s head is toying with the notion of making the company's content unfindable via Google. Sure, Murdoch and his minions have criticized search engines for taking a free ride on its content -- and even argue that readers who randomly reach a page via search have little value to advertisers -- but the move still seems almost childishly rash.

Doing his best Rupert impression, Marketing Pilgrim blogger Andy Beal mocks: "I've decided that I really don't need as many of you coming to Marketing Pilgrim each day. In fact, I've decided to start charging for the content that we publish. Oh, but I will still keep the advertisers' money. They'll just have to get used to the idea that we don't have as many eyeballs viewing their ads. And, lastly, I'm kicking out Google. Yeah, I don't need it bringing any additional readers to the site. They just consume extra bandwidth."

Regarding Rupert's contention that search engine traffic is expendable, Download Squad insists: "He's pretty much just plain wrong ... Search engines pretty much make the Web go round."

Seconds Mashable, "It proves that Murdoch is sticking with the old model of how news and information is disseminated, and doesn't plan to change it ... The problem is, things don't work the way they used to any more.

Yet, according to paidContent, Murdoch doesn't even understand The Wall Street Journal's present reliance on Google as a serious driver of valuable Web traffic, so he can hardy speak to the company's broader search plans. "Murdoch doesn't seem to know how the Journal actually handles Google ... The Journal isn't invisible -- but much of it can be impenetrable after a certain point."

"But the main reason why News Corp. ... won't [block Google] is because, for all their bravado, they know very well how much they rely on Google and the other search engines and that they can't afford to suddenly become basically invisible to the web," writes Softpedia. "The fact is they have no problem with Google sending millions of readers their way, but they'd rather have the search engine pay them for it as well. But Google can do very well even without the biggest newspapers in the world, something that can't be said the other way around."

Read the whole story at Mumbrella et al..