Newspapers live! Or not. Amazon this week unveiled its large-screen Kindle DX, which some hopeful scribes believe could save newspapers by making them paperless.But the doomsaying is getting louder, even from devoted readers. At his Omaha shareholder fest last weekend, business sage Warren Buffett said he reads several papers daily "but for most newspapers in the United states, we would not buy them at any price," according to Marketbeat. "They have the possibility of going to just unending losses." Hmm, "unending" implies a long future! Nope, says Jeff Jarvis, the head geeknoid at BuzzMachine: "It makes less sense every day to try to preserve and protect--to invest in--what is obviously a failing model.
Every day that papers keep printing is a day that they haven't reinvented themselves for a new reality." Ooh--paper cut! Of course the whole destroying-journalism mess is Google's fault. In an op-ed at PaidContent, Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller recalls how Google CEO Eric Schmidt famously labeled the Web a cesspool--but suggests that "in a great many ways, Google has helped to create that cesspool." He writes that GOOG is disproportionally compensated for what is fundamentally other people's work, makes marketers buy their own brand name (for search results) so their competitors will not, and is terrible at showcasing the best, most professionally created content.
Plus: "At Forbes.com, we have estimated that Google makes roughly $60 million a year directing folks to our site," he writes.
Sounds like sourgrapes.com. SearchEngineLand comes to the rescue with a 2,700-word point-by-point counterpoint to Spanny's arguments, suggesting "Google sends Forbes and other publishers millions of visits for free." Read more View here
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