Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Penny Bloom — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:08:24 -0000

Rosebud.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Penny Bloom — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:03:33 -0000

If Mr. Murdoch were in the business of selling widgets, I would entirely agree with you. However, he is not. He is in the business of controlling the flow of information. Information, education, the right to know, are inherent rights of all humans. It is profane to promote a monopoly on information, as Mr. Murdoch has so successfully done over the years. He is our dear Citizen Kane, and I for one will be glad to see him go chase after his Rosebud on Bing.

However, you have another point, on which I agree with you entirely, let him do as he pleases. Instead of worrying about how he is going to limit content, let's let him. Nature abhors a vacuum, and by doing what he proposes he grants the opportunity for independent thought to rise to the surface and un-fettered free press to arise through the dynamic of the same social media that you mock in your comments. I think it is a delightful prospect. Bye, Bye, Mr. Kane!

One last point: nothing in society of real value has much to do with money. When we make profit the sole focus of existence we generate an extremely poor world in which to live. Look around you. If you can't see it, you're not looking hard enough. You mention Economics, read Adam Smith, properly. He did believe in capitalism, unfettered, free, allowing for a balancing of the scales. Monopolies are the antithesis of this dynamic.

No really, THIS is the last point: "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." -- Albert Einstein

Enjoy this Penny for Your Thoughts!

Penny

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Lalit — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:51:11 -0000

Govt must introduce healthy competition in the news industry. News Corp is seeing the emerging threat from Google News, so he is trying to get all media guys to challenge the Google Model in order to save his empire. What will happen when the RSS Feeds become paid service?

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Omar NightFlux — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:40:27 -0000

The man is a dinosaur...a rich one but about to go extinct.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

TheReason — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:24:49 -0000

BREAKING NEWS: BUCKWHEAT HAS BEEN SHOT!

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

JJohnnerson — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:04:24 -0000

He's just pissed becuase his social networking site myspace is no longer relevant.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

SoSad — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:36:17 -0000

It is so sad the this man is allowed to destroy our news outlets.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Sherri — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:55:45 -0000

Tough question. I need information about Mashable's audience. Who are they? What's their income? Age/generation? Occupation? Who would pay for the subscription (their employer)?

What content do they value? How long is the subscription & what’s included in it? (New posts only or archive posts too)

The WSJ is charging $103 per year ($1.99/wk) for an online subscription. I don't believe readers would pay that much to read Mashable posts.

Mashable may need to sweeten the deal by giving subscribers advanced access to or in-depth coverage of breaking news & trending topics.

I’d like the option of customizing my subscription to reduce or eliminate coverage of certain topics. I’d happily exchange some iPhone related posts for something else.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

BruceMcF — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:49:16 -0000

If he has all that manpower, why doesn't he clean up his own house? His MySpaceCDN servers may well be the most important free streams to support the cloud of bootleg free anime streaming sites, competing against the licensed streaming sites. But that is NewsCorp acting as a support base for copyright piracy, and Its OK If Your Newscorp.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Tyler Brown — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:31:34 -0000

There is very little money in online advertising, but plenty of ad space. This has had a trickle-down effect on old media. Plenty of content, plenty of ad space. Organizations that have done well (Economist, WSJ) have done so by restricting their content and charging for the full monty.

Knock Murdoch all you want for going against the 'information is free' trope, but he's following a playbook that has had some financial success. That's a rare bird in journalism.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Pat — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:27:43 -0000

You pay for Fox Channel and you get a bunch of Ads... What are you talking about?

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Tyler Brown — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:21:15 -0000

This article fails to mention that the Wall Street Journal is one of the few newspapers in America that is currently profitable. It currently has the largest circulation in the United States, and has actually profited off of the web via their half-paywall, unlike the New York Times.

Online advertising pays a pittance of what newspaper advertising still does (Look at Politico.) If you want quality journalism, quality overseas bureaus, quality investigative journalism, you have to pay for it. The WSJ has agressively defended their premium, and they've done well for it.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Chris Clayton — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:10:08 -0000

"Why trust any news organization not to slant things, especially one that has been proven to, over and over?"

... do you trust your friends? they could slant things!
... do you trust a doctor? they could slant things!

look, everything here is everyones own personal opinions.
personally, i believe newscorp does a great job with their news - sure their not perfect - but neither is your doctor.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Ashkir — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:11:59 -0000

NewsCorp...not surprising sadly.

NewsCorp is trying very hard to not keep up with the times. It is trying to tie down progress and profit from no progress. NewsCorp has assets that the world likes, but the world is ready to kick NewsCorp to the curb if the company doesn't straighten up and catch up with modern times.

Question: If you're going to charge to watch NewsCorp stuff...what about us who wants to watch it on our laptops, etc? I can always press record on something on my DVR and transfer it to a dvd and watch it on my laptop. =/. When I do this, I SKIP the commercials. The online streaming content...I can't skip the commercial. So...why not just profit from the commercials we cannot skip?

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

lofa — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:39:48 -0000

Good. Let him block his propaganda garbage from Google. Who cares about Murd(er)och. He's just another greedy money monster.

As the old saying goes, a fool and his money soon part.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Jay Purcell — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:16:35 -0000

Hi John, I take on your comments. I'm not trying to make the point that only large enterprises with lots of money can fund honest/stellar reporting. My comment is more to say that we should all be aware that it costs money to create great journalism (and other content for that matter), and making it all free will in the long-run harm it's creation. Advertising is not always the best source of funding. The BBC is funded by tax payers, TIME Magazine and the New York Times also make money from paid subscriptions and most traditional newspapers also make money from subscriptions alongside advertising revenue and the sale of products. Murdoch's plan to charge online subscription fees is just shifting the venue from physical printed matter to digital media.

Advertising revenue is great, but is limited and can not be the only revenue source. At some point readers and audiences will need to start coughing up for content otherwise it simply won't get funded.
Maybe there are other ways revenue can be generated in the future. Maybe building costs into Internet connection fees? Similar to how cable TV channels are bundled? I don't want to defend Murdoch or News Corp, but I definitely think we should all be thinking of ways to fund and support news and other content. Free won't work in the end.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

hkl — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:34:35 -0000

My hubby lost his job because of him!

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

JohnSawyer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:00:07 -0000

Chris: if used properly (it's not difficult), Google can also be easily used as a "here's what has happened today" thing. And with the benefit Kris mentioned: you then have a choice of where you get your information from. The trouble with having all your news served to you on a silver platter, is who's holding that platter, and is what they're serving nutritious? And do you necessarily know what they put into your food? You're trading being informed, for convenience, and not necessarily winding up being informed. All of Murdoch's enterprises are often slanted, and that includes the WSJ. Why trust any news organization not to slant things, especially one that has been proven to, over and over? If you want to restrict your information to a very few, and especially just one source, just to feel like you're part of some trusted, enveloping granddaddy, self-referential team, you're going to become out of touch with what's really happening.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

JohnSawyer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:50:34 -0000

And we all know that the person who has "made more money than all of us put together" is the one whose methods are not to be questioned.

That's like the naive grade school taunt, "If you're so smart, how come you're not rich?"

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

JohnSawyer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:48:02 -0000

I don't think Murdoch sees content as an end in itself--he sees it as an ends towards making money, and political influence.

I agree with your analogy comparing Murdoch to the "crazy guy with a nuke".

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

JohnSawyer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:44:48 -0000

Thankfully, there are still a lot of news providers who don't see their efforts merely in terms of "investment" and "profit". For many (not all) companies involved in crucial public service enterprises such as news, breaking even is a worthy business model. If one wants to make gobs of money, they should go into some other line of work.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

JohnSawyer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:23:49 -0000

Yes, it demonstrates that not much has changed since then, for major segments of the news media.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

JohnSawyer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:16:00 -0000

Jay: the other side to your observations has already been demonstrated by Murdoch: a company that makes gobs of money, and so could hire a news staff of stellar, honest capabilities, won't necessarily do that. Money doesn't equate to honesty or quality. As we've found, too often there's no connection. Having gobs of money can, as Murdoch shows, fuel a slanted enterprise. Many of the entities who now report important stories, aren't funded by massive enterprises, but by much smaller ones that currently make their money the old-fashioned way: through advertising. I don't like ads, but sometimes they help fund good work. There are even non-profit news bodies (there's a lot of news put together by such people that very few people know about), and private individuals.

But I agree, at the same time, that your point has something to it.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

Jay — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:14:25 -0000

....EXCEPT that Google doesn't make any money off of the site. Ever see adwords and Google News. NOOO !!!! Google is the value add and if any one should be charging it should be them as they drive website traffic to the website.

Newspapers are losing money mainly because of craigslist plain and simple.

Re: Rupert Murdoch Plans To Hide His Sites From Google, The World Yawns

JohnSawyer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:02:10 -0000

Not only do things in the news business not work the way they used to any more, but Murdoch's brain doesn't work the way it used to any more.