Has Rupert Murdoch Finally Lost His Mind?

This should work out well. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch is threatening to block Google entirely from accessing articles on News Corp. web sites. Murdoch earlier this year launched a verbal jihad against Internet aggregators and search engines and has vowed to start making people pay for content. From guardian.co.uk: In an interview with Sky News Australia, the mogul said that newspapers in his media empire - including the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal - would consider blocking Google entirely once they had enacted plans to charge people for reading their stories on the web. In recent months, Murdoch his lieutenants have stepped up their war of words with Google, accusing it of "kleptomania" and acting as a "parasite" for including News Corp content in its Google News pages. But asked why News Corp executives had not chosen to simply remove their websites entirely from Google's search indexes - a simple technical operation Ã¢â‚¬" Murdoch said just such a move was on the cards. "I think we will, but that's when we start charging," he said. Boy, that'll really show Google! Murdoch continues: "We have it already with the Wall Street Journal. We have a wall, but it's not right to the ceiling. You can get, usually, the first paragraph from any story - but if you're not a paying subscriber to WSJ.com all you get is a paragraph and a subscription form." The thing is, when you're trying to craft a viable revenue model for your beleaguered online properties, it helps to have a basic understanding of the Internets. As guardian.co.uk's Bobbie Johnson points out, what Murdoch says isn't entirely true. In fact, it's not true at all. Users who find WSJ content through Google can read an entire article; only the people who access the content via wsj.com get a measly paragraph or two, along with the subscription solicitation. Don't believe me? Here's the proof: With Feds, BofA's Lewis Met His Match (wsj.com version) Now I just take that headline and type it into Google News... With Feds, BofA's Lewis Met His Match (Google version) ...click on the top return, and voila: The entire article, at your service. Look, the entire publishing industry is grappling with how to craft a winning business model. It's not easy. But "the world's most powerful media owner," as Sky News Australia interview David Speers calls Murdoch (video below), clearly is letting his frustration cloud his judgment. What he's saying is nonsense. Blocking Google and other search engines is tantamount to online publishing suicide. Does he really think that subscription revenue will more than make up for the ad revenue he'll lose when page views plunge? I don't know what News Corp.'s traffic data says, but plenty of sites out there get half their PVs or more from Google. Rupert, never mind all this talk of pay walls and banning Google. The solution to your problem is clear: More Page 3 girls! (Also see Google CEO On Murdoch's Online Pay Plan: It's Crazy Talk)

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Has Rupert Murdoch Finally Lost His Mind?

Chris Nerney

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Chris Nerney