Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land has a candid and lengthy interview with Eric Schmidt on the future of newspapers and journalism, along with clarification of Google’s interest in the discussion. It’s a really well-done and thoughtful interview that is well worth your time and may surprise you on many fronts.
I was especially intrigued by the line that Schmidt takes on content creation, as in, Google doesn’t create content. I also was intrigued to find out how vital Schmidt finds the leading brands and support structures of journalism to be. While cognizant of the growing pains that that internet has forced upon the field of journalism, Schmidt acknowledges a responsibility to help the field find a new business model that protects the field of deep investigative journalism.
An indicative quote from Schmidt:
We need these content partners to survive. We need their content. We are not in the content business. So, you could decide that we’re just evil businessmen trying to give money to the newspapers [through the Fast Flip revenue sharing], or you could decide that we’re altruistic and trying to save an important Fourth Estate of American political discourse. Whichever one leads to the same outcome. I hope you believe the second. But even if you believe the first, it’s still good business. We need their content.
[Click here to read the article]
