Google's Plan To Save the News Through Reinvention

eldavojohn writes "It's no secret that Google doesn't create content, but rather helps people find it. And Google News is no different. So what does the company plan to do about complaints from the news industry that profits are dropping drastically? In a lengthy and comprehensive article, The Atlantic diagnoses the problem and looks at Google's plan to 'save' the symbiotic organism it is attached to, which older generations have traditionally branded 'the news.' The answer, of course, hinges on moving news from dead tree print to the information age via Google's many projects: Living Stories, Fast Flip, and YouTube Direct. But Google is also exploring the more traditional options of displaying ads and designing a paywall so users can easily migrate back to subscriptions like the newspapers of yore. You may also recall that last week the Internet was abuzz with the idiocy of suggestions the FTC had aggregated from inside the industry. Ars brings mention of other proposed plans, both good and bad, from the FTC's report on ideas that newspaper companies are kicking around."

Reinventing News

[sveiki_neliels]

Doesn't FOX News "reinvent" the news every day?

Re:Google Shouldn't

[mcgrew]

some prick born with a silver spoon up his ass might actually do some WORK?

When pigs fly.

Reverse Subscription

[Wiarumas]

I had an awesome deal to receive a pretty well respected newspaper for only a dollar a month. This included daily papers and the big awesome paper on Sundays. I planned on having a grand ROI by utilizing the coupons which far exceeded the cost of subscription (not because I needed it, but because I have a sick, OCD financial mind). Anyways, fast forward a few months and I could not keep up with throwing these things out. Every morning I would kick the paper inside my door, and everytime I took trash out, I would take them to the recycling bin. After a while though, I had BOXES of newspaper all around my door. It was a MOUND of papers overflowing in several boxes. I did not open or read a single one of them. I meant to cancel, but it was one of those things that you just forget about and it was only a dollar so it was put on the back burner. Eventually, I DID cancel and guess what? THEY KEPT COMING. I called and complaint to take care of it, but it was almost to the point where I wanted to tell them that I would pay to have them stop being delivered. Which brings me to my idea of reverse subscription. Spam everyone with free papers daily. Advertise that you will stop bringing them for a monthly fee.

Re:more ads.

[CarpetShark]

How to save the news? More laser mining on the readers. More Ads.

There, fixed that for you.