Rupert Murdoch, the news industry, and their fight against Google

Rupert Murdoch has recently suggested that once News Corporation launches a paid content strategy they may block Google from indexing the content.

I understand that the newspaper world is having an extremely tough time with establishing an interactive / digital strategy. And they are having an even harder time finding a way to monetize their content. However, it feels like Murdoch is fighting against the very liberation that the Internet has created. The Times Online receives over 17% of referral traffic from Google according to Compete.com. The New York Post receives more than 13% of referral traffic from Google.

Would any business be willing to reduce their customers by 15-20%? If Target or Bon-Ton were to see a 15% drop in store or online traffic I am sure they would be concerned. So why isn’t the newspaper industry? Whether those people result in revenue for online advertising or not, you are denying them the opportunity to engage with your brand, columnists and audience (if you have a community of social tools).

Maybe  Murdoch should take a closer look at his sites. The New York Post has a design that has poor content organization, advertising pop-ups that cheapen the experience, and 728×90 banners that are proven to perform worse than 300×250 units. Maybe a strategy should revolve around improving those aspects of your site and that might improve revenue.

For years the newspaper industry lived off advertising and classifieds revenue. They need to be reminded that this model is dead or decaying. They decided to partner with Cars.com instead of developing their own strategies. Being late to the game has now left them with one strategy, and they believe that to be paid content.

The newspaper industry seems to forget that their history begins with one or two people reporting local stories and events. Blogs and social communities could one day completely replace local news and that is a greater threat than Google referring traffic to your site. If I could continue to get world news from one or two news outlets and weather from Weather.com I would likely have my needs met.

The newspaper industry should focus on providing online value to their current subscribers, possibly with a subscription fee. That would require them to complete kill the print product. They should also focus on site and advertising optimization. And finally, monetizing their site visitors with advertisers is likely a better model than they currently have.

Dennis Jenders

With nearly 15 years in the field, Dennis Jenders is a digital marketing strategist with significant experience in analytics, design, development, information architecture and market research. Dennis is a founding board member of the Milwaukee Interactive Marketing Association, currently works at Laughlin Constable and is an adjunct professor at Marquette University.

Website - Twitter - More Posts