Alternatives to Murdoch’s Google strategy are emerging. The New York Times reports that Christoph Keese, head of public affairs and “architect of online strategy” at Springer wants to work with “Internet companies” to build a “one-click marketplace solution” for paid content. Google or other Internet gateways would display links to newspaper articles, videos and other content [...]
Two months ago, Sly Bailey of Trinity Mirror told a Digital Britain conference: “All we are asking for is a 21st century merger regime to support 21st century media.” This week, The Office of Fair Trading published a 105pp annex to Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report. In an accompanying statement, John Fingleton, chief executive of the [...]
Yahoo’s launch of APT showed signs of haste. These included a press release that appeared to have been written by a chimpanzee on Ritalin. That’s not really a problem. In fact, it’s a good sign that the big promises made by Jerry Yang yesterday have prompted some chunky questions. These include: Streamlined workflow: At yesterday’s [...]
Those of you who recall Norman Fowler as one of Prime Minister Thatcher’s more right-on colleagues will have been startled by today’s coverage of the report from the House of Lords Communications Committee. I’m not sure that making mergers more difficult will solve what ails journalism. If anything, it’s the other way round. Arguably, the [...]
Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, is not what you’d call a loose cannon. This is a man who, in previous incarnations, became an arch-enemy of Microsoft’s expanding monopoly during the 1990s. Now, at the top of a company surrounded by anti-monopoly moaning, the poacher has become a gamekeeper. It’s been fascinating to watch [...]
If we’re seeing the beginnings of a proper debate about Google’s dominance (monopoly?) in the UK, something similar seems to be happening in the US. There, Michael Arrington, the Web 2.0 guru who runs TechCrunch, spent part of his Sunday penning a lengthy article entitled “The Importance Of A Competitive Search Market”. In some respects, [...]