Rupert Murdoch can’t turn back time

It’s too late, Rupert. You can’t turn the clock back. I’m talking about Rupert Murdoch’s latest edict to the world: “People reading news for free on the web’ that’s got to change,” he says.

Then in a classic Murdoch manoeuvre, he turns attack dog. “The question is, should we be allowing Google to steal all our copyright … not steal, but take,” Murdoch says. “Not just them, but Yahoo.”

Today Rupert’s lieutenants leap in aggressively to push his point further. Robert Thomson, the Australian-born editor of The Wall Street Journal has warned that companies such as Google were profiting from the “mistaken perception” that content should be free.

“There is a collective consciousness among content creators that they are bearing the costs and that others are reaping some of the revenues – inevitably that profound contradiction will be a catalyst for action, and the moment is nigh,” he says.

“There is no doubt that certain websites are best described as parasites or tech tapeworms in the intestines of the internet.”

He says that while Google argues it drives traffic to sites, it “encourages promiscuity – and shamelessly so – and therefore a significant proportion of their users don’t necessarily associate that content with the creator”.

“Therefore revenue that should be associated with the creator is not garnered.”

While he is at it, he sticks the boot into media blogs and comment sites. “They are basically editorial echo chambers rather than centres of creation,” he says.

He also warns that lots of newspapers are thinking the same way.

Well of course they are. Because they are all collapsing and struggling, and can’t figure a way out.

But make no mistake. The business models emerging on the internet are not going to change just because Rupert and his newspaper cohorts are not making enough money.

There are two clear publishing models on the net. The first is closed (paying) communities that attract little advertising because their “uniques” are so small. The search engines ignore them and they grow very slowly. The Australian Financial Review online is typical of this model.

The second model is free content that attracts a large community that advertisers pay to reach. The search engines play a big role in sending traffic to these sites, boosting the audiences and thereby attracting more advertising revenue. Yes, there are problems with this model too.

But the point is, you can’t have it both ways. And you can’t go backwards just because you can’t figure out the future.

Murdoch, who was a slow adapter to the internet, has been burnt by the purchase of MySpace, and is now harping back to the past. His latest revelation last week is that News is considering an investment in a Kindle-like e-reader that provides a mobile platform on which online newspapers can be effectively displayed.

The only people that want to read the newspaper on a large screen is Rupert.

Besides, News and Fairfax have been looking at this technology for years!

This of course is good news for all of us competing publishers. If Rupert does decide to lock up all his content a la Fairfax Business Media, then that’s more audience for us, and more advertising money that will come our way.

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