Media magnate Rupert Murdoch has backed down from blocking Google and says that he will let the search engine index his newspapers.
Murdoch went to war with the search giant over how and when it peers into his content, going so far as to call it “a parasite” that “steals” his content.
Google was unimpressed by this, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt suggested that old media could not keep up in the new online world:
“In general these models (paid online content) have not worked for general public consumption because there are enough free sources that the marginal value of paying is not justified based on the incremental value of quantity. So my guess is for niche and specialist markets … it will be possible to do it but I think it is unlikely that you will be able to do it for all news.”
In reaction, Murdoch pulled up the drawbridge and jumped behind a paywall to stop Google from benefitting from his journalists’ work, and then saw his newspapers’ readerships fall.
“We’re going to stop people like Google and Microsoft and whoever from taking our stories for nothing,” he said two years ago.
However, The Telegraph reported that Murdoch has had a change of heart and will now let the firm back in with its indexing.
The report is light on details, and so far we have not received confirmation from News Corp.
Murdoch was rather glowing about Google earlier this month though, and, in a tweet about Google glasses, called them “genius”. Twentieth Century Fox also struck a deal with Google that will bring 600 new movies and TV shows to Google Play and YouTube.
This article was originally published on the Inquirer.
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