Don't Newspapers Owe Google Money For Helping Them Research Stories For Free?

Say That Again

from the of-course-not... dept

Last month, we parodied the mainstream press’ criticism that everyone else “owed” them money because they were the original creators of a story, by noting that the press never paid the newsmakers for creating the story in the first place. Danny Sullivan has now taken a more serious look at this, noting that for all the talk about how Google is “stealing” from news publications, those same publications never seem willing to admit how much they rely on Google for their jobs these days — and perhaps one could make an argument that these publications actually owe Google for helping make them more productive. After all, the newspapers claim they want a “fair share” of the money Google makes since it’s using their content for “free.” But, the same argument works in reverse. If it’s “fair,” then shouldn’t Google get a share of the money the news publications make, since its reporters use Google’s tools “for free”?

Obviously, the real point is that both sides benefit, and each is responsible for putting in place business models that work. Google has done that successfully. Many news publications have not. But no one should be claiming its “unfair” or that someone else owes them money.

Meanwhile, Sullivan’s piece also goes into great detail about how a random AP story he found was written after an AP reporter found some stories on some blogs, and used them to do more research and publish his story. But were the blogs on which he found the story credited? Of course not. Did they get “their fair share”? Of course not. Hell, unlike Google linking to publications’ stories, these bloggers didn’t even get any traffic or attention from the AP reporter, who simply wants to pretend he came up with the story from nothing.

And the AP wants to claim that it’s being treated unfairly?

Filed Under: business models, danny sullivan, fairness, free, journalism, newspapers, research