Google: Newspapers' worst enemy?

The quiet, ongoing war between Google and daily newspapers is finally out in the open, with newspapers charging Google with monopoly tactics, and claiming Google was responsible for the distribution of an outdated article that led to the collapse of United Airlines stock last week. I wouldn't bet on dead-tree purveyors winning this one.

The latest shot came today when the World Association of Newspapers essentially charged that a Google-Yahoo deal to share ad revenue will lead to illegal price-fixing. Together, Yahoo and Google control 80% of the search market.

Reuters reports that the 18,000-member World Association of Newspapers said in a statement that

Competition between both these two search companies has provided a necessary check to any potential market abuses...W.A.N. strenuously opposes Google's attempt to take over a portion of Yahoo's content advertising and syndicated search business...with respect to paid search ads, the deal can be perceived as an agreement to fix prices.

In addition, as I reported last week, The owner of the Chicago Tribune claims that Google is to blame for the collapse of United Airlines stock price when an old story about the airline's bankruptcy was published online.

Whether they like it or not, newspapers need Google more than Google needs newspapers. Getting a prominent link on Google News, or a result high up on a Google search, sends a newspaper's traffic, and revenue, through the roof. And although newspaper content helps Google, there are plenty of online-only news sources and blogs so that Google would survive quite nicely even if newspapers went away. 

Because of that, the newspapers can't win this one. The Yahoo-Google ad deal is only a minor threat. The bigger threat is that newspaper print readership is dwindling, and the papers haven't yet come up with a business plan that works online. Unless they figure that one out, very few of us will be reading the morning paper for much longer.