Google Drops Plans to Save Struggling Papers

CEO says company won't cross the line into creating content

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted May 21, 2009 3:03 AM CDT

(Newser) – Google has decided against throwing struggling newspapers a lifeline through acquisition or by using its charitable arm to help them gain non-profit status, CEO Eric Schmidt tells the Financial Times. Schmidt said the company considered the idea, but decided that Google didn't want to cross the line between technology and content, and that potential acquisitions proved to be either too expensive or had too many liabilities.

Schmidt—cooling speculation that the firm will step in to aid the New York Times—said the Google.org foundation would be unlikely to get involved in any non-profit deals for newspapers without a "massive, massive set of corporate bankruptcies." The way forward for newspaper franchises is through improving their online efforts, and Google is working with the Washington Post and others to help them build better platforms for advertising, Schmidt said.

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"We are very interested in trying to develop online news versions that somehow address the immediate needs of people and for which advertising works better," Schmidt said. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

"People are now reading the news on all sorts of devices in all sorts of different ways," Schmidt said. "The newspaper is only one of the many ways in which they get information." (©jayhay2336)

The final editions of the "Rocky Mountain News" roll off the presses earlier this year. Google has decided against using its charitable arm to assist struggling newspapers. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

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We’re trying to avoid crossing the line between the infrastructure and technology that Google provides, and the content that our partners provide. There's a line and we’re trying to stay on our side of it. - Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Without commenting specifically about products, it seems to me that the newspaper that I read online should remember what I read. It should allow me to go deeper into the stories.
- Google CEO Eric Schmidt

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Google Drops Plans to Save Struggling Papers