The future of media driven by search. Unfortunately, old folks grew up in a time when “search” meant walking down to the local newsstand and browsing for dead trees to buy. To them, finding stuff on Google is “stealing“. That’s why News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch plans to block Google from indexing his media conglomerate’s newspaper content, in an effort to put it all behind a paywall.
I don’t have an MBA in marketing and sales, but I’ve heard that if you want to sell something, you really should let people find it. That’s why businesses appear in the yellow pages. Somebody should tell Rupert that, especially since he wants to sell News Corp content online. It’s hard to sell something when people can’t find it, especially in the ocean of alternatives now available through easy search.
This isn’t even a matter of restricting information. It’s just a matter of bad business. Even kids with lemonade stands know well enough to put up readable signs so people can find them.
Then again, I wouldn’t mind this old guy’s newspapers disappearing from my Google search results. Go ahead, Rupert. Continue to assume everyone still passively relies on newspapers for all their news. Ignore the explosion of active choice now offered by search. Commit media suicide.
Originally posted on November 10, 2009 @ 3:17 am