• Silicon Valley Watcher, Friday, February 13, 2009 11:45 AM

Broadcast journalist Charlie Rose this week started a series on the future of journalism, inviting Walter Isaacson of Time, Robert Thomson of The Wall Street Journal, and Mort Zuckerman of the New York Daily News to join him on his show. During the interview, Silicon Valley Watcher's Tom Foremski says the Journal's Thomson said "several interesting things." The most interesting: "Google devalues everything it touches. Google is great for Google but it's terrible for content providers." The problem with Google, Thomson says, is that it doesn't distinguish between the quality of content around which it serves ads. It is merely concerned with quantity.

As for the future of newspapers, Zuckerman said that they wouldn't go away. Thomson agreed. "I think Mort is on to something," he said. "Dead trees are definitely not dead. ...the idea of spending 30 minutes with any medium, with -- and the only multitasking you're doing is drinking a cup of coffee, that does make newspapers unique. And actually if you talk to ad people, they're starting to recognize that."

But Thomson also pointed out that the Web is still where future growth lies for these once-mighty media brands. "Every newspaper is of itself a great brand, and to have brand value on the Web is to have a great advantage."

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