econman - 10:18 pm on Mar 15, 2012 (gmt 0)

Tedster: I agree with your comment in the WSJ thread:

best thing any small publisher can do, IMO, is put renewed emphasis on producing top quality

I don't think Google's doing a very good job distinguishing between great content and mediocre content, but it makes sense to anticipate that they will figure it out at some point -- and that they will increasingly supply superficial/simple content themselves, rather than sending users somewhere else to read basic facts.

All strategies have risks, but it seems to me if you focus on having high quality and greater depth, you have a chance of pulling away from the pack (move higher than the competition in the SERPs) if they ever figure out the difference, and you reduce the risk that Google will displace you by answering user's questions directly.