Google to sell new e-books online

With too many competitors following on with what brings in the green buck, is Google now adopting a different business approach: diversification?

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Posted: 02 June 2009 0714 hrs

WASHINGTON - Google plans to begin selling electronic versions of new books online this year, posing a potential challenge to market leader Amazon.

"We've consistently maintained that we're committed to helping our partners find more ways to make their books accessible and available for purchase," a Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker said in a statement on Monday.

"By end of this year, we hope to give publisher partners an additional way to sell their books by allowing users to purchase access to Partner Program books online," Stricker said.

"We want to build and support a digital book ecosystem to allow our partner publishers to make their books available for purchase from any Web-enabled device," he added.

Stricker did not provide any further details about the commercial book project, but The New York Times said the programme is separate from Google's controversial book-scanning programme.

Google reached a settlement in October with authors and publishers who had filed a class action lawsuit alleging copyright infringement over the Internet search and advertising giant's scanning of millions of books through its Google Book Search service.
Under the settlement, Google agreed to establish an independent "Book Rights Registry," which will provide revenue from sales and advertising to authors and publishers who agree to digitize their books.

The settlement mostly involves out-of-copyright and out-of-print books, however. It still needs the green light from a US district court judge and must also pass muster with the US Justice Department.

The Times said the latest Google project would allow publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Google.

This would place Google in direct competition with Amazon.com, which sells e-books online for its Kindle electronic reader, the newspaper said, adding that the move was "likely to be welcomed by publishers."

The Times quoted Tom Turvey, director of strategic partnerships at Google, as saying Google's programme would allow consumers to read books on any device with Internet access, including mobile phones, rather than being limited to dedicated reading devices like the Amazon Kindle.

Turvey also said Google would allow publishers to set retail prices, unlike Amazon, which lets publishers set wholesale prices and then sets its own prices for consumers. - AFP/ir

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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Future of newspapers is digital, says News Corp. chairman

Posted: 29 May 2009 1132 hrs

New York Times

WASHINGTON: News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch said on Thursday that the future of newspapers is digital, but it may be 10 to 15 years before readers go fully electronic.

Murdoch, in an interview with the News Corp.-owned Fox Business Network, also said that newspapers, faced with eroding print advertising revenue and circulation, are going to have to start charging readers on the Web.

The News Corp. chief said newspapers in the future will continue to make money "from our readers, from our advertisers (but) the newspapers may look very different.

"Instead of an analog paper printed on paper you may get it on a panel which would be mobile, which will receive the whole newspaper over the air, (and) be updated every hour or two," he said.

"You'll be able to get the guts or the main headlines and alerts and everything on your Blackberry, on your Palm or whatever, all day long.

"All these things are possible. Some of the greatest electronics companies in the world are working on this very hard," Murdoch said.

"I think it's two or three years away before they get introduced in a big way and then it will probably take 10 years or 15 years for the public to swing over."

Murdoch, who has announced plans to charge readers of his publications online, also said "you're going to have to pay for your favorite newspaper on the Web."

The days of free news online were "going to stop," he said.

"I believe newspapers will be selling subscriptions on the Web," he said. "A (newspaper) website will be vastly improved, much more in them and you'll pay for them."

"There's a case that newspapers rushing on to the Web to try and get a bigger audience and get more attention for themselves have damaged themselves," he said. "Now they're going to have to pull back from that and say 'Hey, we're going to charge for this.'"

Asked by Fox about a government bailout for newspapers, Murdoch said News Corp. would never take government money.

"We'd give up our freedoms and everything else to criticize or to play our full role in the community," he said. "Nothing that News owns will ever take money from the government and I don't believe even The New York Times would."

The 78-year-old Murdoch announced this month that he planned to begin charging readers of the websites of News Corp. newspapers "within the next 12 months."

Murdoch's holdings include The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Times of London, the Sun and The Australian, among others. The Wall Street Journal online already requires a subscription fee for access to all of its content.

Murdoch's comments came as The Atlantic magazine reported that top US newspaper executives held a "discreet" meeting in Chicago on Thursday to discuss the future of the troubled industry. - AFP/yb

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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Google drops idea of buying newspaper

Posted: 21 May 2009 0923 hrs

Google Chairman and CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt

WASHINGTON: Google considered buying a newspaper but dropped the idea, the head of the Internet search giant said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday.

Google chairman and chief executive officer Eric Schmidt said the California company had also considered using its charitable arm, Google.org, to support news businesses seeking non-profit status but was now unlikely to do so.

He told the FT that Google had looked at buying a newspaper but concluded that potential acquisition targets were too expensive or carried excessive liabilities.

The Mountain View, California-based search and advertising company, he said, was "trying to avoid crossing the line" between technology and content.

Instead, Google was working with The Washington Post and other newspapers to improve their online products and with publishers to make their websites "work better" for online advertising, Schmidt said.

He told the FT that "clever ideas" about sheltering newspapers in non-profit structures had been suggested to Google.org but "are unlikely to happen without some massive, massive set of corporate bankruptcies."

US newspapers have been grappling with a steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.

The FT said Schmidt would not comment on reports this month that Google had been approached about buying a 20 per cent stake in the New York Times Co. owned by hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners.

It said Schmidt played down industry calls for Google to increase the amount of revenue it shared with news organisations whose content appears on Google News, saying it would have to take money from "another pocket" to do so.

The Google CEO also said it was highly unlikely that people would pay for general news on the Web when so much was available for free.

Subscriptions and micro-payments would work for specialised content, he said, but were unlikely to do so for general news such as political reporting.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is among the media groups which have announced plans recently to begin charging readers on the Internet.

The FT said Schmidt, whose name has been mentioned as a possible candidate for governor of California, also ruled out any political ambitions.

"I can assure you I'm not going to run for politics," he said. "There is no second life after Google."

- AFP/yt

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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