Google to Allow News Groups to Limit Views

Google has recently announced they will be limiting the amount of free news stories that can be viewed through the browsing giant. Currently, though the 'first click free' program, if a story is found through either Google search or through Google news, even if it is on a subscription only website, it is free to read. The point of this program is to help promote news sites, lead new customers to the sites, and help give people the best news possible.

But there are detractors, Rupert Murdoch, head of Fox News, is the biggest one. He has threatened to block his news sites from Google completely. This comes after recent complaints that news is not making enough money, and the switch of Fox News to pay content. Google has commented that they help generate more viewers for publishers through their search and that any publisher does have the option to completely block Google.

Now the big issue is not the first click, it is the possibility to constantly go back to Google search and find new articles to read for free. This could be an issue, though I highly doubt that there are enough people exploiting this to read news for free on a subscription site. There are so many other options for news stories that the hypothetical reader would have to be obsessed with a certain news site but unwilling to pay the small subscription fee.

This whole scenario seems to be complaining from Murdoch and other corporate heads who are wanting to switch from the current free news model so they can make more money. The thing is that readers of the internet will always go to the free model when it comes to news. As long as quality websites are delivering high quality news stories, only the most devoted readers will pay for a specific news site. When great news sources like the New York Times decided to move away from he subscription model, you know it isn't the best of ideas.

Personally I would rather see Rupert Murdoch try and block Google from his website so he can see the amount of clicks on articles drop. Google and other search engines help bring a lot of eyes to various news sites and it is only in their best interest to keep those lines open. Even without the subscription fee, they still make money off advertisements on their websites. It seems more a complaint about not making more money then making no money at all.

Sources: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200912011449dowjonesdjonline000386&title=google-to-let-news-groups-set-reader-limits

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091201-712081.html