Hot debate: Microsoft and publishers versus Google

The debate about paid newscontent is coming to a head. Important decissions will be made over the coming months that may have a deep and lasting impact on the Media companies that make them.

Microsoft is known to make it difficult for competitors to be successful in similar markets. Earlier we reported on talks between Microsoft and publishers to add exclusive news content on their Bing search engine. This coincides with companies threatening to pull their news from Google search results.

The FT reports that Microsoft – which has made increasing the market share of its Bing search engine its top online priority – has reached out to “big online publishers” in order to get them to pull their sites from Google. Among the parties currently in discussions with Microsoft is News Corp., which has very loudly threatened to block search engines from crawling the content of its newspapers. via Will News Corp move its content to Microsoft’s Bing? | Media | guardian.co.uk.

Other publishers are following suit:

Publishers of the Denver Post and the Dallas Morning News may pull some of their stories from Google Inc.’s news site, a move that would emulate News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch. via News Corp. Joined by Rivals Weighing Google Block (Update1) – Bloomberg.com

Mashable feels this may be the end of these companies led by Newscorp as there are now many alternatives to find the same news. One of the authors adressed Murdoch urging him to think through his choices carefully before making such a drastic and potentially very damaging move. 

They write: “ We’ve had enough. Murdoch’s plan to de-index from Google is getting out of control, and it threatens to speed up the destruction of all traditional media. If other newspapers decide to join this insanity, here’s what will happen: more efficient organizations will step in to fill the gaps. There is no shortage of lean and socially savvy media organizations built in the last five years.” via Murdoch: Take Your Google Ball and Go Home

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has also shared his opinion on the latest developments and is urging Rupert Murdoch to be open: ” Newspapers should become “radically open” if they want to make money in the online world, the co-founder of social networking site Twitter has said. Biz Stone said that he would “love to see what happens” if newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch went ahead with plans to block Google from his websites. “The future is in openness not [being] closed,” via BBC News – Twitter urges Murdoch to be open

Picture: Stock exchange | Planet | Dimitri Castrique