Larry and Sergey love papers — honest
Google is widely seen as being the enemy of newspapers — particularly by the short-sighted newspaper publishers in Belgium and elsewhere that have sued to keep their news results out of Google News — but billionaire co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin say they think newspapers have a bright future. Really. At least, that’s what they reportedly told a forum at the exclusive Davos retreat for tall foreheads and global celebrities.
Admittedly, neither one of them reads newspapers very regularly, although Sergey apparently likes the New York Times on Sunday (but then, who doesn’t). “I think that newspapers have a good future,” Larry said, adding that his company was working “really hard” to help advertisers get their ads into newspapers. However, the Google founders said newpapers would have to re-think their strategy in terms of content. “Papers will have to focus more on creating very unique content,” Sergey said.
A hat tip goes to Roy Greenslade at the Guardian for the link. Roy notes that the plug from Google’s dynamic duo is somewhat ironic, and “hardly a ringing endorsement.”
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(On Jan 28th, 2007 at 8:00 am)
Google likes newspapers the way Expedia liked travel agents the way Zillow likes real estate agents.