Reflections

Google To FTC – Radio & Television Were Also Going To Kill Newspapers

Posted by on Jul 22, 2010 | 2 Comments

The folks at Google have presented a case to the FTC, in which it has provided a history lesson, on previous attempts by the newspaper industry to cry wolf. In seems that Google recalls when both radio and television were the villains, including an all inclusive statement which said:

The large profit margins newspapers enjoyed in the past were built on an artificial scarcity: Limited choice for advertisers as well as readers. With the Internet, that scarcity has been taken away and replaced by abundance. No policy proposal will be able to restore newspaper revenues to what they were before the emergence of online news. It is not a question of analog dollars versus digital dimes, but rather a realistic assessment of how to make money in a world of abundant competitors and consumer choice.

The document itself is a masterpiece and serves as a history lesson for anyone who chooses to read it. Google also provides a lesson in fair use, copyright, and also a schooling on the First Amendment.

Both the FTC and the entire newspaper industry need to read this document.

It will become a classic in the annals of the Internet and how it changed the entire world, including how news was presented to the masses.

You can read the entire document here.

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  • http://www.justenrobertson.com Justen

    Nice, thanks for pointing it out. I’ve made this rant less eloquently so many times I’ve lost count – I don’t know if it’s getting through. Brand loyalty is a tradition as strong as religion today; sheeple equate failure of a brand they love with personal failure. Invoking the terrible, “but we’ll go out of business!” threat sends them cowering in fear and screaming to their masters to “DO SOMETHING!” Something, inevitably, is foul economic necromancy perpetrated by the mystical dollarmancers, but the sheeple go to bed knowing GM and the NYT is still “alive” and that they have succeeded in preserving an institution, at whatever cost. Ugh.