excerpt from Marketing Vox via Sharon Waxman in The Wrap: my bold:Â At a Hollywood party last week, CEO Eric Schmidt of Google revealed the search giant’s intentions to provide a “solution” to the collapsing newsprint industry.
“Schmidt is distinctly aware of the newsprint meltdown going on in an information world dominated by his company, and that [the Google News] system only works as long as there is someone to report the news that his system delivers to readers,” wrote The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman, after speaking directly with Schmidt.
“In about six months, the company will roll out a system that will bring high-quality news content to users without them actively looking for it.”
Based on past purchases, search terms, sites visited and other criteria, users that visit Google’s homepage will automatically be served news that interests them. And because likelihood of interest — and thus, readership — is higher than with untargeted news, Google believes it will be able to sell premium ads against premium content provided in this manner.
Asked whether news organizations involved with the program would make more money or receive a higher revenue-share on premium content, Schmidt said no. But he pointed out papers would glean more traffic from their existing content, ultimately raising ad rates.
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From Digital Destiny:Â I think it’s time there was a serious discussion about a tax on companies that aggregate news content without payment, which could help support journalism.
