...the freight-paying audience comes into these sites through things like Google. I pretty much never go to sites that I pay for through search engines (and in fact, I find that their coverage in the engines is pretty hit and miss). If he's cutting out a media audience that is simply free riding and not affecting the folks keeping the lights on, it might well make a good deal of sense.

“The absence of any US-Iran bilateral channel...may have the perverse effect of reinforcing Iranian interest in progressing in the nuclear realm so that the US will be forced to take it seriously and engage it directly." ~ Richard Haass

At least with smaller news sites you get a lot of hits off breaking events keywords, and all the time through the long tail (like names and places). "Organic" Google and Yahoo hits could easily be 3/4 of the traffic in some places, more likely 1/2 to 40% for larger ones. Thats just an estimate but I used to run politicsinminnesota.com and a lot of traffic came in all the time from searches.

This is great news really. The Murdoch style has always been so tabloid, now we'll see how much people are willing to cough up to get their brains rotted. Free brain rot at least you don't lose money gawking at.

Just imagine all the time people won't lose because no one wants to pay for Murdoch. Xmas comes early :)
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Hongpong.com

Murdoch knows that google makes its money off indexing content; thus, as content providers monetize that privilege, google will have to start sharing revenue with content providers. it makes sense to me.

Google makes money off of advertising, an important distinction. For example a site with content increases its reach through Google's natural search. That is FREE money for the "indexie" like Murdoch because it increases his reach for free via the value of the content. Now Murdoch is getting "FREE" marketing thanks to Google and content. Now, in this model, Murdoch has a subsidy, thanks to Google that it can actually spend. This subsidy is the value of the traffic Google brings to Murdochs site which Murdoch makes money advertising and perhaps selling to. Now Murdoch can use this subsidy to underwrite his marketing channels. That's why, if you know SEO you can make a lot of money in my industry because SEO, Search Engine Optimization is the most important channel of any E-Commerce. Murdoch can choose to pay Google, this IS how Google makes money, for keywords i.e. paid search, this further enhances Reach. In fact if you can bracket search with natural search and paid search the re is a bonus.

We need a NATION WIDE STRIKE for Real healthcare reform

Right, and the only reason why google sells advertising is because they give away indexing; i.e. think "wall drug," the drugstore that advertised "free water" so people would come to the store and buy something else.

so I totally understand your logic and we'll see together what happens when the "content producers" start to pull their content from google.

as a reference, cable companies pay content provides (cable channels):

Cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner Cable pay big bucks to distribute channels like CNN in your area -- perhaps $7 or $8 per subscriber, per year -- and have no interest watching their monopoly evaporate thanks to the Web, the iPhone App Store, or any other distribution vehicle they don't control. [source]

and it makes sense to me that google does the same thing.

CNN, of course, runs commercials too; that's why their monthly subscriber fee (less than a dollar a month) is so low.

How do you think Google would do if they charged you each time you searched? I suggest they would be out of business in a week but this is exactly what Murdoch is about to do; good riddance.

Google knows that it has to give away the indexing; exactly what Murdoch would consider the family jewels because the internet is all about bringing customers in. The Internet was a void before Google. Venture funded internet retailers would poor money into the media and not see a measurable return. Along came Google and all that changed; now there is such a thing as internet marketing where before it was a black hole lined with bits and bytes into which everyone poured money.

One great lesson in all of this are the Blender Tech folks. This guy makes a video of a blender blending an IPod which goes viral and so does Blender Tech's business. I actually went to a talk where the same guy blended a grass rake. He mentioned that one of the commentators on CNN wondered why he didn't choose to do a full page add in the New York Times instead. Remember, the original video seen by millions cost $80 to make. The NYT add would have sold a handful of Blenders.

We need a NATION WIDE STRIKE for Real healthcare reform

There are multiple ways to do it. In Murdoch's case, its called suicide.

We need a NATION WIDE STRIKE for Real healthcare reform

20% of 300 million is 60 million and that's a big market. If half of those are actual possibilities (i.e. not kids), that's still a very big market! and I think the market is larger than that.