• April 8, 2009

Google CEO Eric Schmidt told newspaper publishers Tuesday that they should focus on mobile technology and the development of new platforms for delivering news.

Schmidt said news Web sites take too long to read, a shortcoming that can be addressed by improving technology. He said technology for reading news on devices like mobile phones must ultimately be as pleasant as reading a magazine.

Schmidt was a speaker at the Newspaper Association of America's annual convention in San Diego. His appearance came one day after The Associated Press announced an initiative to track down copyright violators on the Internet and try to divert traffic from Web sites that don't properly license news content. The AP didn't name any potential targets, but some news reports focused on Internet search engines like Google.

However, Schmidt said Google has a multimillion-dollar licensing deal for AP content. "I was a little confused by all the excitement in the news in the last 24 hours," he said.--Tanya Irwin