5 Comments

1. 1
   Thomas Paine
   Posted November 10, 2009 at 11:12 pm | Permalink

   Haha… and I saw some statistics somewhere today that showed the numbers that found Rupert’s papers via google…and the number of new visitors.

   Good move Rupe…turn your enterprise into an island.

   Murdoch could block Google searches entirely

   http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/09/murdoch-google

   Google: Rupert Murdoch can block us if he wants to

   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6532657/Google-Rupert-Murdoch-can-block-us-if-he-wants-to.html

2. 2
   Dewgong
   Posted November 10, 2009 at 11:16 pm | Permalink

   You know, I actually don’t think Rupert’s war against the internet is designed to make profit out of online news. He hates the internet. He wants to drive people back to newspapers, the physical things people used to buy off racks and read on their kitchen table over their breakfast or morning coffee.

   He is betting that if people suddenly find they can no longer access the news for free online, they’ll go back to the real things. My money says it will fail though.

3. 3
   Stilgherrian
   Posted November 11, 2009 at 2:31 am | Permalink

   Also, if you are standing in front of an oncoming freight train and do not want to be hit by the freight train and probably killed then you can prevent being hit by the freight train if you shout really loud about how important you are. I think that’s the strategy.

4. 4
   Josh
   Posted November 11, 2009 at 2:44 pm | Permalink

   The real problem for Murdoch with paywalling is that whilst obviously he likes making lots of money out of his businesses to pay for those private jets and his kids new multi-million dollar homes, his other prime motivation for being in the News business is political influence. He loves being a puppet master and has always used his publications and TV networks to influence public policy. If it all goes behind a paywall unsearchable by google he is going to lose a massive amount of that influence.

5. 5
   Mr Pastry
   Posted November 12, 2009 at 5:50 pm | Permalink

   I am sure News Corp will be able to eventually change, survive and prosper, but it will be after Rupert has passed on to the other side, and I don’t mean to google. When he gets there, he may regret letting Kerry Packer get there first as Mr Packer will have cornered the after life opportunities and has God in his pocket already.