Newspapers, Google, Advertising And The Big New Media Mess

Here is a very fascinating interview with Rupert Murdoch (News Corp. Chief Executive Officer).

This could well be one of the most interesting looks at what happens when a traditional media is in flux, uncertainty and will do (and say) whatever it can to figure out where the new business models are (and to protect what they have): YouTube – Sky News – Interview with Rupert Murdoch.

The real problem with News Corp. turning off Google (or the search engine pipes) is not about distributing their news to more and more people (and getting them to pay), it will be the loss in free branding, visibility and free advertising it gets from ranking so high to the top of search engines with the millions of searches done on those terms every day. I understand that Murdoch does not believe that any of these individual people would ever pay for content, but when a company does provide enough value and quality, I do believe people would be more than willing to pay for information that is consistently relevant to them.

Is Murdoch out of touch or does he truly understand that even though fewer people will pay for content, those that do pay will make them profitable?