Google UK head says that Google isn't to blame for newspapers' problems

Posted by Helena Deards on February 17, 2009 at 1:23 PM

Head of Google UK, Matt Brittin has defended Google from criticisms levelled at it by Wall Street Journal editor Robert Thomson. Speaking in an interview alongside Walter Isaacson of Time and Mort Zuckerman of The New York Daily News, Thomson told interviewer Charlie Rose that "Google devalues everything it touches. Google is great for Google but it's terrible for content providers." His criticisms included Google's flat fee for all content regardless of its quality.

However Brittin, a former Trinity Mirror employee, believes it is not Google but consumers who are causing the downturn in advertising in print. "It is easy for people in traditional media to look at the Internet and say, 'Oh God, the internet is taking away our readers and advertisers'. But - and I want to be really clear about this - it is not Google that is taking advertisers away. It is consumers changing their behaviour. And that presents challenges to all of us." He also points out that Google last year "gave away" $1.4 billion to publishing partners for advertisements on their sites.

Just by its very existence Google is harming newspapers - but exactly the same can be said for the Internet as a whole. If Google weren't doing what it does, some other company would be. Information on the Internet is popular because it's free, instant, all-encompassing and easily searchable. These factors are hard if not impossible for a newspaper to compete with.

However what is interesting is Brittin's statement that "Many publishers are partners of Google and we work together by providing targeted advertising to their websites... All we are trying to do is help traditional media in a new environment". Just over a month ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke on the same topic and explained that the possible end of the newspaper industry to him "presents a real tragedy in the sense that journalism is a central part of democracy... we're still looking for the right answer." Schmidt's desire to save newspapers, contrasted with Brittin's pledge to help publishers in a new environment displays a small difference in policy, but perhaps a crucial one.

Source: The Telegraph via Press Gazette, Silicon Valley Watcher