Two More Publishers Talk About Blocking Google

A couple of major publishers are siding with (or at least edging towards) Rupert Murdoch in the News Corp./Google content dispute.  MediaNews Group and A.H. Belo execs have said that they're interested in keeping Google away from parts of their sites.

Let's talk about MediaNews Group first.  It operates 54 daily newspapers with a combined daily circulation of 2.4 million.  Corresponding websites are part of the mix, as are a TV station and some radio stations.

As for the organization's take on blocking Google, CEO Dean Singleton told Greg Bensinger and Brian Womack that some pay walls are going up next year, and "[t]he things that go behind pay walls, we will not let Google search to, but the things that are outside the pay wall we probably will, because we want the traffic."

Then there's A.H. Belo to consider.  It owns and operates four papers and 12 sites, and is weighing a similar approach.  Only Executive Vice President James Moroney seemed less than interested in search traffic, saying, "It's akin to a person who drops into town, buys one copy of your newspaper and leaves town again and yet you spend a whole bunch of time building your business around that type of customer."

The idea of keeping Google away from content appears to be gaining a bit of momentum, then, and with some additional prodding from Microsoft, Rupert Murdoch's idea could go further than critics first expected.

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Survey: Online News Credibility Increasing

For the second year in a row, ARAnet has shared survey results about the news consumption habits of Americans. This year's survey found that Americans are increasingly turning to online sources, as well as radio for their news, while going less to daily newspapers and television.

According to the survey, conducted by Opinion Research Corporation and sponsored by ARAnet, daily newspaper usage dropped 4.1 percent and television usage dropped 3.6 percent, while radio usage increased 2.9 percent and online usage increased 1.9 percent.

With regards to the percentage of news and information Americans receive from various media sources, here is how survey participants ranked different news media:

- Television: 31.1 percent (down from 34.7 percent a year ago)
- Daily newspaper: 19.4 percent (down from 23.5 percent)
- Radio: 19.4 percent (up from 16.5 percent)
- Online: 14.6 percent (up from 12.7 percent)
- Weekly community papers: 4.4 percent (down from 5.1 percent)
- Free shopper newspapers: 2.9 percent (up from 2.2 percent)
- Magazines: 2.1 percent (up from 1.6 percent)

Interestingly, credibility ratings from participants for nearly all types of media rose slightly from a year ago. Here is how they scored them in terms of credibility:

- Television: 6.5 on a scale of one-to-10 (down .1 from a year ago)
- Daily newspaper: 6.3 (same as last year)
- Radio: 6.3 (up .3 from a year ago)
- Online: 5.7 (up .1)
- Weekly community papers: 5.4 (up .2)
- Magazines: 4.9 (up .3)
- Free shopper newspapers: 4.3 (up .8)

The survey also looked at media use by demographic. It indicates an increased use of online sources for news and information among the college educated, Hispanics, and people making over $100,000 a year, when compared to the general population. In addition, the younger the respondent, the more likely they were to rely on online sources.

- Respondents with household incomes of $100,000 or more receive considerably more news and information from online sources (23.1 percent versus 14.6 percent for the general population).
- College graduates reported using online sources more frequently (20.0 percent).
- People 18-to-34 reported the highest reliance on online sources (22.2 percent).
 -Hispanic respondents were more likely to prefer online sources (21.0 percent).

The publishing industry is of course struggling to find ways to make money in a world where people would rather get their news from free online sources than pay subscription fees, or for content at all. This week PaidContentUK shared results from a study that found the majority of people (unsurprisingly)would seek a free alternative if their favorite news site started charging for content.