Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
Tribune and other newspaper publishers should, in Zell's view, stop effectively giving their content to Google and other search sites. "If all of the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, how profitable would Google be?" Zell asked during a question-and-answer session late last week at Stanford University, according to a Washington Post report. "Not very."
Zell's plans for Tribune Co. taking shape [marketwatch.com]
The wisest of traditional media know that they cannot set back time or technology. Something new is alive and that's that.
Surely taking their news articles out of Google will just accelerate the rise in news bloggers (let's not start a debate on whether that's a good thing or not).
$8,200,000,000 for a group of companies you don't understand... unbelievable
Probably not many, since most of the Tribune's news, columns, comic strips, etc. are likely to be available elsewhere.
BTW, I'll listen to this guy's complaints about Google getting "free content" when newspapers start paying for letters to the editor. :-)
That's a key point, I think - even the big dailies are relying more on syndicated content these, either picking it up verbatim or doing minor rewrites.
Regardless, Zell should be thinking about how to get more Google traffic, not less.
The Tribune Company's big complaint about the LA times is that they believe in producing their own national ind international news and they were trying to shut that down. So if they want to get all their national and international news off the wire, and only do local, why does he think google will pay his papers the big bucks for what amounts to nothing? They will just pay the wires and go with the few remaining "real" papers that allow crawling.
It will be interesting to watch this unfold...
...as to how much it will affect Google .. perhaps some minor discomforts...but the "news" <= and, of course, this is a very subjective term depending on where and how the news is created... will continue to flow through other channels...
...what's to stop bloggers from picking up the morning edition of the Chicago Tribune or LA Times and re-write their own interpretation of the news...nothing....
He learns quickly. Let's see what he does.
Zell specializes in buying problem companies and finding ways to make them profitable. Nobody else seems to have found a way to make newspapers profitable again. If he's wise, he'll realize that cutting staff to the bone (or beyond the bone) is not the way to profits.
I forgive the guy his remark based in ignorance, and I would like to see what he does. I find the creativity of business to be fascinating.
It may be usefull to remember that the majority of the human race is not online, an big name companies have an enomous presence for them.
The "old" economy types may have been left behind by the online giant that is google, but they 're human too, very intelligent an always hungry, they must catch up
A large number of people never use google or any other search engine but simple surf directly to their pagemarked favourites, so those offline giants are not as dependent on google & other SE's as perhaps some people are, in other words he has a diferent perspective
Anyway, people compete, they usually don't just roll over ,,,,,
I remember when I first found out that directory scripts where being sold for ,,,$25
Way to go, Zell. Long as the noose is around your neck, might as well jump of the horse, huh?
make newspapers profitable again
Oh, they are quite profitable now. The Tribune Company's problem was that it isn't growing its huge profit or market, and that doesn't make shareholders in a public company happy.
