Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave a pep talk to the news industry Sunday Night in Washington, addressing the American Society of News Editors. Schmidt’s talk comes after Rupert Murdoch recently re-ignited the "we’re going to block Google" flame.
Is the web good for the news industry? Tell us what you think.
"The web can ultimately be very good for news," Schmidt is quoted as saying. "Think about it: You have more readers than ever, you have more sources than ever, for sure you have more ways to report and new forms of money. New forms of making money will develop."
According to Politico, Schmidt talked about "wanting to be challenged through technology that directs readers to a story with an opposing view." News aggregators do this (assuming that they’re aggregating a rounded pool of sources. Google News does this. Go to a story page in Google News, and you’ll be met with articles (sometimes hundreds or thousands) from varying sources, many of which have varying views.
That can be valuable to a reader, and can paint a more rounded picture of the story. Perhaps Google will deliver something (technology-wise) through Google News that puts greater emphasis on the opposition of views from the sources it draws from. Could this really be done algorithmically? What if Google News had a credibility rating system like Allvoices?
Google is "working on new ways to tailor advertisements and content for consumers, based on what stories they read," according to Politico’s account of the speech.
Either way Schmidt reportedly says that new forms of making money will develop and that Google is working on them, without giving any more detail than that. He did however advise news publications to place greater emphasis on news personalization and mobile, and maintained that there’s a bright future for both display ads and subscription models.
What approach would you like to see Google take for delivering news content? Ads? Share your thoughts here.
