Google and the Future of Local News

The Google County Times: The Future of Local News? - Christopher Mims - The Atlantic: "Google has hatched a plan to boost the visibility of its existing local news product, and in the process is testing a whole new way to get people to pay attention to the news that is geographically most relevant to them. Google is testing a local news "card" in its Google Now service, which is built into all new Android smartphones and is available on the iPhone through Google's Search app. Google Now is a logical vehicle for local news because one of its primary functions is knowing where you are and providing information that is "contextually relevant" to you, as specified by your interests, the time of day, and your location. . . ."

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Why Google pulled the plug on Frommer's

Why Google is pulling the plug on Frommer's - Fortune Tech: "Spotting a tourist used to be easy. Just look for someone toting around a travel guide. Today, vacationers are organizing their trips entirely online. All they need to carry with them is a smartphone to occasionally look up tourist attractions and navigate around town. Travel guide publishers are in upheaval amid this new reality. Sales of guidebooks are down sharply as people instead turn to sites like TripAdvisor for hotel and restaurant reviews. . . . BBC's sale of Lonely Planet, happened earlier this month. The British broadcaster disclosed plans to sell the guide-book publisher for $78 million, far less than the nearly $200 million it had originally paid. . . . "

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Yahoo! no longer a digital media company?

Silicon Valley is a "Media Valley" It's a giant virtual Gutenberg machine made up of powerful media technologies that have replaced the innovation of movable type with that of programmable type -- the extraordinary ability to publish pages of complex content on-the-fly and change them in real-time -- across a massive distribution network that has enabled the end-points to publish back. (source ZDNet, infra)

Yahoo! says it's no longer a digital media company | ZDNet: " . . . Colleen Taylor at Techcrunch, reports that Yahoo! has changed the way it describes itself in its latest 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Yahoo is now labeling itself first and foremost as a “global technology company,” in the place where it used to call itself a “digital media company.” . . .  A far better description of Yahoo! would be as a "technology media company." It uses sophisticated media technologies to publish digital content and advertising. What's not "media company" about that? Technology companies develop and sell technologies, such as databases (Oracle), microprocessors (Intel), software as a service (Salesforce.com). What technology can you buy from Yahoo!? Google is a media company and so is AOL, Facebook, Twitter, and hundreds of Silicon Valley companies, too. Is Yahoo!'s change of description wrong timing yet again? . . . it gave away its media technologies for very little money such as licensing its pay-per-click IP to Google, without which it wouldn't have had such a lucrative business. Google is a media company but it prefers to be described as a tech company because it partners with traditional media companies. In the mid-2000s it struck deals with the New York Times and other large publishers to manage their online advertising. The NYTimes.com front page was full of Google delivered ads, often with a link, "If you'd like to advertise on this site click here" taking you to straight to Google. The NYTimes had handed over its advertising customer relations to Google - a rival media company! If the New York Times considered Google to be a media company at the time, which it was, it would have approached such a partnership with a lot more caution. . . Even Eric Schmidt, Chairman and former CEO, often refers to Google as a media company. . . ."

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Google, Inkling, and Amazon

Amazon May Seem Unstoppable, But Google Is Powering the Counterattack | Wired Business | Wired.com:

San Francisco-based Inkling is specifically shooting for Amazon’s book business. Founder and CEO Matt MacInnis observes that the Kindle isn’t especially well suited to the oversized, graphics-intensive layouts of many textbooks. Inkling seeks to overcome this limitation of traditional e-book formats through a layout engine specifically designed to re-envision textbooks for tablets, smartphones and the web. But elegant design doesn’t take you far if most online shoppers are going straight to Amazon to buy books. That’s why Inkling has developed an information architecture based on the concept of “cards.” Each of the books is divided into chapters, and each chapter is divided into cards. A card contains what amounts to one quantum of useful information. Cards themselves are viewable for free on a limited basis; readers can buy Inkling’s books by the chapter. Each card also has its own URL, which means Inkling’s cards are what Google indexes. Inkling is banking on the quality of the information in its cards to rise to the top of Google search results (and generate attention on social media) to get Inkling’s books noticed. People aren’t going to discover content through Inkling, MacInnis says. They’re going to discover Inkling through content.

Google Defeats Publishers Over Web Copyright in German Vote - Bloomberg: "Google Inc. (GOOG) and other news aggregators may continue to show short news items on their Internet sites without being required to pay, German lawmakers decided in a parliamentary vote today in a blow to publishers including Axel Springer AG (SPR) and Bertelsmann SE. A majority of lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition allowed companies such as Google to display “single words or very small text excerpts” referring to publishers’ websites at no cost. For content exceeding these limits, publishers retain the exclusive right of use, according to the bill. . . ."



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Google wins Australia advertising case

Google wins landmark advertising case in Australia | Reuters: "The ruling helps Internet providers and search engines argue that they are not publishers, but simply carriers of information provided by third parties. . . . The finding ends a six-year legal battle between Google and Australia's consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which accused Google of engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct over paid advertisements. The ACCC based its case on search results in 2006 and 2007, where a search for Honda Australia would show a paid advertisement for a Honda competitor, CarSales. The ACCC said the ads were deceptive, as they suggested CarSales was linked to Honda Motor Co Ltd. Google argued that it was not responsible for the advertisements, as it was only the conduit for the advertiser. In a unanimous finding, five judges of Australia's High Court ruled in favor of Google, overturning a ruling from the Federal Court. The lower court had ordered Google to set up a compliance program to make sure paid advertisements on its search engine were not misleading. The five High Court judges said Google did not create the sponsored links and the company was not responsible for messages in the links. . . ."

The Verge Hires Writer Who Quit CNET in Protest - NYTimes.com: "Mr. Sandoval announced his resignation via Twitter on Jan. 14, less than an hour after The Verge published its report. CBS sought to portray its involvement as a one-time incident. In a recent statement, the company said: “CNET is not going to give an award or any other validation to a product which CBS is challenging as illegal, other networks believe to be illegal and one court has already found to violate the copyright act in its application. Beyond that, CNET will cover every other product and service on the planet.” Last week, the organizer of the Consumer Electronics Show cut its ties with CNET and reinstated the Hopper as the winner of the Best in Show award."


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French publishers and Google settle

Google upholds its principles while offering help to French publishers trying to transition to the "digital world"--

Google cuts copyright deal with French publishers | PCWorld: " . . . The first component of the plan is a €60 million digital publishing innovation fund aimed at pushing French publishers into the digital age, "to help support transformative digital publishing initiatives for French readers," said Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt in the blog post. . . . The second part of the plan is designed to improve Google's partnership with French publishers to increase their online revenues using Google's ad services. "A healthy news industry is important for Google and our partners, and it is essential to a free society," said Google's Schmidt. "This exciting announcement builds on the commitments we made in 2011 to increase our investment in France—including our Cultural Institute in Paris to help preserve amazing cultural treasures such as the Dead Sea Scrolls," he added. . . . The partnership aspect of the plan, however, suggests that Google and French publishers will be sharing certain technologies in an effort to avoid future copyright disputes. In that sense, the initiative is similar to the settlement Google reached with Belgian news publishers in December. . . . "

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

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Facebook and Google are Better Positioned than Traditional Media

Facebook and Google are Better Positioned than Traditional Media...and How Traditional Media Can Fight Back - Forbes: " . . . Traditional media companies are challenged by what constitutes premium content. Historically, premium “curated” content was slick, glossy, and professionally created, and that is what was pushed to consumers. But that model doesn’t work anymore. Now, with advances in digital photography, the availability of how-to instruction, and content distribution, consumers are content creators. And, apparently the popularity of sites where consumers post their own created content is trumping that of traditional media sites. It seems that today, coveted content is really that which is personalized, passionate, and shared with those with similar interests. Their second problem is advertising dollars follow consumers who follow content. As publishers continue the painful shift of their business away from print media to digital media, they are not only competing in the digital space with each other for ad dollars, but also with the most sophisticated technology companies in the world, namely Facebook and Google…and it is not a fair fight. These tech giants can offer advertisers something traditional media companies cannot – real-time information and data on individuals engaging around content (Facebook with social, Google with search). . . . At least for the time being, Facebook and Google appear well positioned to engage their users, and to provide transparency and efficiency for brand advertisers. . . "

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Google settles Belgian papers' copyright dispute

Old media, paywalls, copyright, and Google--

Google settles Belgian papers' copyright dispute | Reuters: "Google agreed . . . to help boost online revenues for a group of Belgian newspaper publishers and authors, settling a six-year dispute over copyright which it hopes will be a model for resolving similar clashes around the world. Publishers have been trying to get Google to pay them for showing their online content in Web searches as more and more readers of the printed word defect to online media. Under the Belgian deal Google said it will now collaborate with the Rossel Group, which owns leading dailies Le Soir and L'Echo, the IPM Group, which publishes La Libre Belgique, L'Avenir and with the authors to help them generate revenues from their online content. "We have reached an agreement that ends all litigation. From now on Google and Belgian French-language publishers will partner on a broad range of business initiatives," Google said in a statement. These include working with the publishers to ensure that readers pay for the news via paywalls and subscriptions and distributing content on smartphones and tablets. Google itself will not pay for the content on its services. . . . They will also be able to pull out of Google's web search and Google News whenever they want. The case started in 2006 when the media firms took Google to a Belgian court, saying the search engine had infringed their copyright. Google is also embroiled in similar disputes in other EU countries. . . . Google says its services drive traffic to publishers while its AdSense programme, which allows companies to place banner advertisements on a website, pays $7 billion yearly to web publishers worldwide. . . ."


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