News Corp Chief Executive Office Rupert Murdoch (you know, the guy who "owns" most of our media) has said he wants people to pay for access to his news sites. Other publishers, including The New York Times, are also searching for new ways to charge for online news, convinced that they must not "give out" the news through search engines like Google and Yahoo.
Microsoft has also talked with other online publishers about removing its sites from Google, according to the Financial Times. One website publisher was quoted, saying, "This is all about Microsoft hurting Google's margins." Microsoft relaunched its search engine under a new name, Bing, earlier this year. Since then, it has been seeking some way to challenge the market leader, Google.
Microsoft signed a 10-year global web search partnership deal with Yahoo, and that's a deal U.S. and European antitrust regulators are still evaluating. Both Microsoft and News Corp declined to comment when contacted by Reuters reporters. All sources are anonymous since the talks are not public.
These negotiations may change the way we get our news from trusted sources. Consumers have yet to indicate they (we) would be willing to start paying for news we've grown accustomed to getting for free. In previous posts, I've discussed the rise of popular sites like NowPublic, YouTube Direct, and other consumer generated media (CGM). I believe this is the wave of the future for journalism. I'm not exactly an expert, but I see a struggle coming. I'm betting on the consumer to be the big winner in the end.
In this new "always-on" age of digital technology, control of information (or power) is moving farther into the hands of the people. The rate of information being disseminated online is increasing at an unprecedented rate.
I'll do my best to keep you up-to-date on all the events that relate to media as they unfold. One thing is for sure, this is going to get interesting.
Source: (New York) Reuters.
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