Comments on: David Geffen Wants a Chunk of the New York Times. But What Does Google Want?

By: David Geffen's Attempt to Help or Buy the New York Times | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

Fri, 29 May 2009 16:33:28 +0000

[...] But in just a few paragraphs, the article does seem to sketch out Geffen’s desire to associate himself with the Times in whatever way he can: Buying it outright, lending it much-needed money or buying some of its stock (via Harbinger Capital). [...]

By: Google: We’re Still Not in the Newspaper Business | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

Thu, 21 May 2009 10:58:16 +0000

[...] Schmidt did allow that Google had at least mulled the idea at one point, which will be old news to MediaMemo readers: FT: Would you ever consider buying a newspaper; they’re cheap right [...]

By: David Geffen Thinks The New York Times Is a Charity Case. So What Does He Want To Do About It? | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

Thu, 14 May 2009 13:10:39 +0000

[...] fallout from this week’s Fortune story that disclosed David Geffen’s interest in the New York Times (NYT). We’re now seeing a series of stories that say that Hollywood billionaire thinks of the paper [...]

By: at least there is interest « Pdemato247’s Blog

at least there is interest « Pdemato247’s Blog — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:47:41 +0000

[...] rich companies and individuals are still interested in them. Peter Kafka explored this in his Media Memo blog. As long as there are investors who are willing to invest in news that they believe in, than [...]

By: David Geffen Wants a Chunk of the New York Times. But What Does Google Want? [MediaMemo] | heave-ho.org

Tue, 12 May 2009 10:35:59 +0000

[...] Read the original post: David Geffen Wants a Chunk of the New York Times. But What Does Google Want? [MediaMemo] [...]

By: TechKive » Blog Archive » David Geffen Wants A Chunk Of The New York Times. What Does Google Want? [MediaMemo]

Tue, 12 May 2009 03:32:06 +0000

[...] Read more here: David Geffen Wants A Chunk Of The New York Times. What Does Google Want? [MediaMemo] [...]

By: Mac Beach

Mac Beach — Tue, 12 May 2009 02:07:26 +0000

Having watched Kerry’s Senate hearing:

http://commerce.senate.gov/pub.....3dc3955c61

(That video starts a full hour before the hearing so manually skip ahead if you don’t want to just stare at the hearing title for an hour.)

It would appear that the people running Newspapers now are not smart enough to navigate their way out of this (how many times does an Internet type have to mention “robots.txt” to them?). They seem to simultaneously think they have pages and pages of IP (Intellectual property) to protect, while at the same time admitting they they are just regurgitating AP, Reuters, and government press releases. Only at the end of the 3 hours hearing did someone mention that it was Craigslist that took local ad revenue from the print papers, not Google.

It may well be that Google doesn’t want to get into the news business, particularly at the local level… but at the point that that business is about to disappear and there is less and less content to aggregate, what choice do they have?

They (Google) DID pay local contractors to drive vehicles around capturing data for Google maps, and they also paid (at one time at least) a commission to people getting businesses signed up for the business search part of Google maps, so there is SOME precedence for them dabbling in “news gathering”. From the hearing above it seemed clear that if Google doesn’t jump in soon, Hufington post, and others are more than ready to.

Murdoch’s name was mentioned a few times too.

By: David Geffen Wants A Chunk Of The New York Times. What Does Google Want? [MediaMemo] | techclack.com

Tue, 12 May 2009 01:45:07 +0000

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